A Counselor's Holiday Wish
ã by Robert J. Chapman, Ph. D.
We live, it would seem, in an age when faith has become something of a scarce commodity. "Beliefs," on the other hand, appear to be abundant supply. Perhaps it is because a belief is a solitary act of conscious will, steeped in information unfettered by veracity, and only requiring the understanding of the believer before being proffered as "truth." Consequently, we find no shortage of "beliefs" as 2000 draws to a close.
In the age of
instantaneous exchanges of information, it has never been more easy for one human
being to share an opinion or belief with another than it is at the present,
this greeting being a prime example. But what of faith? What of the need to
find a place of relative peace and serenity in a world that at times seems to
vacillate between uncertainty at its best and chaos as the alternative?
Faith has become a particularly challenging virtue to cultivate in our contemporary Western culture. It would seem this challenge is not so much born of an absence of a belief in a higher power, a God or supreme being if you will, but rather becomes an elusive virtue because we find ourselves living at a time in history when the need to rely on faith to address the pressing questions of our time has been supplanted by the desire to promulgate beliefs and opinions about the truth. Living in an age where we have access to instant information, employing technology that would seem to double in months rather than generations, we have come to expect instantaneous answers to life's most perplexing questions. Gone is a need to rely on a simple faith, it being replaced instead, by a dependance on reason and intellect to address the pressing questions that face humankind. This is, I suppose, a faith of sorts, an acceptance that technology possesses the ability to resolve the problems of the day. Yet, like a muscle unused, faith in a purpose for being or faith in a power greater than oneself alone will atrophy as well without exercise.
We live at a time of great prosperity for many, and it is easy to trace that prosperity back to the confluence of human reason and intellect. We have managed to answer questions that have only recently been identified, often with the expectation of immediate answers. Humankind has mastered flight, explored the space around our planet, healed the sick and answered countless questions that, for millennia, had been considered the exclusive domain of the supreme being in which we so consistently purport, in national surveys, to believe. Yet for all the accomplishments of this confluence of reason and intellect, and they are many and wondrous, this progress has not been without its price.
It has become increasingly difficult to follow Paul's admonishment in the Christian bible that "Faith is [the] confident assurance concerning what we hope for, and conviction about things we do not see" (Hebrews 11, verse 1). Interestingly, while troubling for many educated adults, this directive presents no real challenge to children. In our push, however, to hasten the onset of independence as the defining characteristic of successful development, we "teach" our children that a reliance on "confident assurance concerning what we hope for" and a "conviction about things we do not see" is juvenile and unrealistic. We insist, instead, that our children rely on intellect and reason, develop a reliance on self, and insist that the primacy of success is self-sufficiency and personal independence. It is difficult to "know" that what we seek, peace and serenity, will be granted if we can only abandon ourselves to the simple faith of a child that makes its request of a parent, a trusted guardian, or a personal God. As it was the faltering faith of Moses in the Hebrew bible, when Yahweh directed that he strike the rock with his staff to provide water to the thirsty Israelites that prevented him from entering the promised land, so it is when in pursuit of self-reliance we question the utility of a definition of faith predicated upon confidence in what is hoped for and conviction about things unseen. It is difficult in an age of instant answers to sit quietly and patiently await a response to a prayer of supplication or a sought after flash of inspiration, from whatever source.
As a counselor educator of some years, I have learned from my clients and my students that the opportunity to discover true wisdom is not so much born of the answers uncovered in the rigorous pursuit of knowledge, but is most often found in the questions others have helped me craft and ask. Consequently, the peace and serenity we seek as a people is not the result of personal acts of will or pursuit of intellectual knowledge, but is more often found in the simplicity of nature or smile on an individual's face when acknowledging a kindness unexpected. Faith is not a static commitment to a set of principles, defended at all costs against the assault of others. Rather, it is the constant and frequently rhythmic movements made, risks taken if you will, that maneuver one beyond the self in order to share and to care and, yes, to love others.
At
this special time of the year, I take pause to share with you and your families
my warmest and most sincere holiday greetings. May there truly be "peace
on Earth, and good will towards all" in the new millennium.
To read previous holiday greetings, click here.
Robert