Finding Faith Everywhere

Where is faith found? To be sure faith is found in a wide variety of Holy writ, covering many languages and cultures. Faith is both caught and taught through lessons, doctrines and especially through song and proclamation during worship. Land is consecrated and buildings are built for the purpose of such teaching and gathering. However, is faith really found in an edifice or rather in the spirit of the gathered community seeking to know God?

Dr. Samuel H. Dresner was a student of Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel. In a book titled I Asked For Wonder/A Spiritual Autobiography, he compiles the teachers thoughts on a wide variety of topics. In one titled “Faith Is a Blush” he shares:

God
is unwilling to be alone,
and humans
cannot forever remain impervious
to what God longs to show.
Those of us who cannot keep their striving back
Find themselves at times
within the sight of the unseen
and become aglow with its rays
Some of us blush,
others wear a mask.
Faith is a blush
in the presence of God.

The Rabbi seems to imply, as the Prophets of Judaism insisted, that true faith begins in knowing our need of God, and in such awareness, obtaining a touch of humility which causes us to shine in the presence of Holiness. Remember the story of Moses on Mount Sinai, receiving the Commandments. As he came down the Mountain the people noted his face shone brightly for having been near God. Moses was not in the Temple, and still the result of his encounter with God stands today as a powerful symbol of the connection God has with people.

It has been said that the most important act of faith one might perform quite possibly will not take place in a Temple, Church, or Mosque; in fact, it may well occur on the highway, in the supermarket, or at a sporting event. We must be willing to broaden the horizon, and look beyond Holy sites for faith expression and experience. When this occurs the possibility of holiness happening simply causes us to shine.