Leap of Faith

Leap of Faith.
I don't know about you but sometimes I have to act on faith. Sometimes no matter how hard I try to know what the best course of action is, I come up even more confused. So eventually I just have to leap......
Life is full of these kinds of choices. For the last year and a half I have had to choose faith almost every day. No matter how I crunch the numbers on some things I can't get the answers to balance (little accountants humor::)
It gets really interesting when you feel you do know what you are suppose to do and then you have a hard time figuring out how it should be done. When you know you have tried and finally left it up to God to show you the way. Then when answers come to you and you are secure in your choices you can move forward. It may not be easy. Others may not understand. The evil one will throw up all his defenses. But your faith can win out. If you do not give up.
What is faith? I like this quote:
When you come to the edge of all the light you know,
and are about to step off into the darkness of the unknown,
faith is knowing one of two things will happen:
There will be something solid to stand on,
or you will be taught how to fly.

Faith comes in all shapes and sizes, to people, organizations, churches, groups,etc. You name it. The problem is that the more we organize ourselves the less we rely on it. We start to trust our systems. I wonder what we miss. I wonder who we don't serve. I wonder.
I don't know. I could be wrong. But I think :


Faith is a living and unshakable confidence. a belief in God so assured that a man would die a thousand deaths for its sake. -- Martin Luther

For we walk by faith, not by sight. -- Corinthians 5:7


Faith is to believe what you do not yet see; the reward for this faith is to see what you believe. -- Saint Augustine

Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. -- Hebrews 11:1

Faith leads us beyond ourselves. It leads us directly to God. -- Pope John Paul II


Faith is the strength by which a shattered world shall emerge into the light. -- Helen Keller
AND

The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind is a faithful servant. We have created a society that honors the servant and has forgotten the gift.
--Albert Einstein

I hope we don't succomb to the mentality that we should act always on our own opinion. Or on what our rational mind can tell us. I hope that often we will lay down our defenses and ask God to lead us. Many times it will be into uncharted territory that our physical body will fight. But it is there we find the most beautiful part of the journey. Once again will you walk with me?

What now?

I guess by now we all know the sad resolution to the Terry Shiavo case. Many people can now get back to the normal routine of their lives. For me it will linger. One thing that really struck me and will continue to be something I ponder is the fact that in this country now, it is wrong to be voiceless. If circumstances put you in a place where you cannot express your feelings, you are considered as good as dead. There is actually a disability group called "Not Dead Yet". The only thing we really know about people like Terry is that they have not YET found a path to communicate with us. That is ALL that science can actually prove. There are medical diagnosis that are questionable at best. And that is a point that can be debated strongly on several sides. But for sure, many doctors will agree if you push them, that they make clinical diagnosis based on clinical presentation and that is a physical manifestation and not a neurological one. It cannot be proven because unless you can "get into" someone's head and read their thoughts you don't know what thoughts they have if any.
I won't go into all the stories I have read about people who could not communicate to others that they were still in there and were forced to listen to doctors tell their families there was no hope, withdraw life support,etc. Luckily circumstances have sometimes provided means for these few to be able to find their voice before it was too late.
I hope that if the Terry Shiavo case does one thing, it will start a push for better understanding of people who have suffered a brain injury. I hope it will lead to further investigation. Living Wills are what most people seem to have taken away from this case, but if the diagnosis is questionable that point isn't so important.
We are all just a stroke, car accident, bad fall, heart attack or other accident away from this puzzling condition. It can happen to anyone at any time. When it is someone else it is easy to make value judgments. When it is you or your loved one, you may look at if differently.