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Living Faith

This quote I read recently in Circle of Reading stayed in my mind for days, specially after that experience I had with meeting the woman who had lost her adult daughter and made an amazing peace with it relying on her faith:

A human being cannot understand his ultimate purpose, and the purpose of the whole world, in terms of his being a worker who delivers building materials for a construction, for it is impossible to know either the form of this construction or its purpose. But a human being can know, and does know, that what he is participating in creating is something rational, beautiful and necessary for him and for the whole world. That is what faith is.

Faith is a hard concept to grasp for those of us who lack a strong religious anchor. My neighbor is lucky is not one of them.  Her church provides her the harness and community in which to express and exercise her faith. Folks like me have to find another way to arrive at the same place of serenity. Maybe experiencing setbacks help, failing to execute on best laid plans or life happening in wonderful and unexpected ways.  I was thinking about what part I am playing in creating something rational and beautiful that the world and I both need. Viewed through that lens even my work feels more relevant and meaningful - individuals, companies and the customers those companies serve have been positively impacted by my work over the years. The work could be doing, leading or influencing. Maybe I should focus more on helping bring about what meaningful change I can in my area of influence. Maybe a microscopic level of participation in the grand scheme of things but that would be an act of faith all the same.


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