“My coming to faith did not start with a leap but rather a series of staggers from what seemed like one safe place to another. Like lily pads, round and green, these places summoned and then held me up while I grew. Each prepared me for the next leaf on which I would land, and in this way I moved across the swamp of doubt and fear. When I look back at these early resting places…I can see how flimsy and indirect a path they made. Yet each step brought me closer to the verdant path of faith on which I somehow stay afloat today.” Anne Lamott – Traveling Mercies
The imagery of the “lily pads” speaks so well as to the journey of faith, the “series of staggers from what seemed like one safe place to another. What is/seems at one point like solid footing, like a good resting place can, with a shift to a slightly different position or point of view, become shaky, necessitating a move to the next place to be held up, the next place to grow. Faith is not factual certainty. I need not take a “leap of faith” if there is the certainty of solid ground beneath my feet. I am no fan of change, but a walk of faith seemingly necessarily involves a “swamp of doubt and fear” in which beliefs are considered and/or reconsidered, are cast away or embraced more firmly.
It occurs to me... 