I feel blessed to have been in the room a couple of years ago when Neil delivered a talk at Unity of Calgary called ‘Belief, Faith and Trust’. (Tho I’d like to say I always get to hear him speak, that’s simply not the case. Sometimes our schedules conflict.)
At any rate, Neil delivered a delightful talk, full of his usual enthusiasm, passion and humour. He offered some very engaging personal stories that really illustrated the points he was making.
I am sharing below a small excerpt from his talk, intending it to be an inspiration for you to examine what you have faith and trust in. (If you’d like to listen to Neil’s entire 22-minute presentation, which includes a short, guided meditation, click the link to the youtube video recording below.)
Excerpt:
For me, Faith is an interesting word. Most people understand faith as either
1. complete trust or confidence in someone or something. e.g. “this restores one’s faith in politicians”
2. a strong belief in God or in the doctrines of a religion, based on spiritual apprehension rather than proof. “bereaved people who have shown supreme faith”
I read the above definitions and two words jumped out at me to muddle the water for me – Trust and Belief.
Is Faith a concept on its own? Or is it just a fancy word for Trust and Belief, or is it deeper?
Those questions triggered me to ponder the potential interaction between, Faith, Belief and Trust.
The difference between trust and belief can be explained by an example.
There was a tight rope walker, Charles Blondin, (1800’s) who could perform death-defying feats without support or lifesaving equipment. Crowds gathered to watch his feats. He would walk across Niagara Falls over the tight rope.
In one event, he performed the daring stunt and took a wheelbarrow over the tight rope. Before he walked the tight rope he asked the audience, “Do you believe that I can take the wheelbarrow over the tight rope?” Everyone in the audience believed and cheered him on.
Blondin then asked, “In case you believe I can do it, who will sit in the wheelbarrow?” There were no volunteers.
Here we see that everyone had a firm belief that he could carry the wheelbarrow successfully over the tight rope. But no one wanted to volunteer to sit in the wheelbarrow and trust him with their life.
Here you see the difference between belief and trust. They had a belief that Blondin would do it successfully, but they wouldn’t trust him with their life.
Which gets me to think, “Am I operating at the default level of belief, trust, or faith?” At a little level, my ego wants me to figure this out, so I know how evolved I am compared to you. (Let’s face it, whether we like it or not, we are judgement machines. I am no different than you.)
We are always operating on two basic human principles – am I safe? or am I not safe? Every room or situation we find ourselves in, we are assessing for those two conditions.
Ego has me feeling safe if I am in a group where I am ahead of others or am at least at the same level as the others in the group; fear kicks in if I’m not at their level.
Good thing this talk is on Faith and not pride… Or I would be in such big trouble!”
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