*I apologize for no blog yesterday. The website was very slow and did not allow me access at the time I had set aside for blogging.
At one time or another, we all have to take a leap of faith. We decide to take that trip to a country that has had political unrest because we want to learn about our history. We apply for a job that we might be underqualified for but which suits us to a T. We quit a job that we are highly successful at, knowing that there is another dimension to us that cannot be developed if we stay at that job.
Or, we have a leap of faith that there is something more to this life than what we see, hear, touch, smell or intellect. This is perhaps the biggest leap of faith for many of us. We risk ridicule or scorn or masked concern from others who don’t share our beliefs.
I left the Catholic Church many years ago. Not because I believed LESS than what the church offered, but because I believed MORE. I didn’t see the boundaries that the church had set upon their belief system: only one true faith, only Catholics go right to Heaven for being good people, the rest of the belief systems go to purgatory, we are born sinners, we must confess our sins to a priest, and so on. Those boundaries confined me in a way that would not allow me to fully understand and form a relationship with God. I needed more.
That is not to say that others don’t have a fulfilling relationship with God while holding strong Catholic beliefs. I know some very spiritual Catholics. So while Catholicism didn’t do enough for me, it offers plenty for others.
But in my situation, I had to take a leap of faith that I could build a new relationship, a stronger relationship with God than what I received from my upbringing. I continue to build that relationship with God because I am still learning and growing each day. But the relationship is personal, and I have an agreement with God that I place no boundaries on the potential for where this learning will take me. I take a leap of faith in my beliefs each day.
In yoga, we take leaps of faith every time we come to the mat. But that is a story for another day…