In the neighborhood

“Looks like you are being faithful” said the two ladies walking slowly toward Filly from the back of the neighborhood.

“Thank you, Yes I am” Filly said as she was walking also. She watched their white hair glow in the early morning sun as they passed by her and got smaller and smaller walking towards the opposite distance. As they walked farther and farther away, she thought about “faith”. Walking every day or most every day, was indeed being “faithful” but Filly had always thought of faith as having a continuous belief in God. She had never thought it had any relationship to walking or working or listening…just believing.

But maybe that definition about just believing, that she had kept all these years, was a limited definition. Maybe faith was indeed more broad; a continuity of the perpetration of good, in spite of any uncooperative circumstances. It was a transformative thought for Filly.

If faith were about doing good, instead of just thinking about God, then the focus in life would not so much be about belief as it would be about good action. Finding a balance between work and rest, prayer and exercise, Music and silence, talking and listening. Walking the walk, not just talking the talk.

Filly had just gone to watch “becoming Led Zeppelin with her husband and had heard a song she had never heard before…. And being “faithful” was realizing was how a person could be changed from believing that “stairway to heaven” was their favorite song, to realizing that “thank you” instead, was what gave goosebumps. Listening, re-evaluating, and then hearing something for the first time.

Faith, and continuously doing good, was what allowed a person to be open to transformative ideas and thoughts. More than drugs, alcohol or personal power.

The song “thank you had the following lyrics
“And so today, my world, it smiles
Your hand in mine, we walk the miles
And thanks to you it will be done”

Just beautiful.

Filly thought of the ladies she had seen walking earlier, their smiles and their dedication. She thought of her mom, walking with her, back in her home state, grabbing on to her hand on an icy part of the street, holding her hand, Filly feeling the firm grasp from a woman with iron determination.

She never walked ahead of her mom; she waited, was patient, and listened and learned ..”your hand in mine we walk the miles”. That faithful trust, allowed her to be transformed from rebellious to devoted, from confused to faithful.

It was like walking with her mom in front of an abortion clinic, praying for babies to be restored to their proper place in society, after having had one herself, having recognized her own mistake and not repeating it. Or like choosing to drink water instead of alcohol, or use prayer instead of drugs because of the importance of family responsibilities over friends.

Its was like realizing that transformational experiences have nothing to do with the body but instead have everything to do with what thoughts we are allowing into our thinking and realizing that these thoughts dictate our behavior and do in fact affect the people around us.

Being faithful Filly thought, was realizing that each persons body, is a gift to them, from God. Each person could be seen as representative of a perfect idea of God, with talents and ideas and behaviors, having all they need to be faithful and joyful. Any person can be transformed by being faithful to producing good fruit, away from a life of discontent, discord, fraud, divorce or abuse. If a tree is good, the bible says, it produces good fruit. Is the transformation causing harmony, joy, and the ability to bond easily with other people doing good? Faith, the continuous attempt to do good, can do that.

Faithful people form communities. Being faithful in a community, is realizing that the right choice has everything to do with choosing God, and becoming part of a community of faithful people who are listening to God, and the bible, not so much about which community that might happen to be.

Faithfulness is about walking the walk, the ability to be calm, patient, friendly, happy, productive, hardworking, loyal, willing to find compromise, joyful, and helpful to others without resentment. Being faithful is learning that good is the only power there really is. Yes indeed, it is good to be faithful.

We are not in Kansas any more. Not in OZ either. We the faithful are in God’s country…flying like an eagle.

Randomly chosen bible verse for the day…

Thus you will walk in the ways of the good
and keep to the paths of the righteous.