Childlike faith

I've been reflecting on the idea of "childlike faith." My mom could never grasp the concept and would go on rants about how she could never get onboard with the concept.  I found an old essay she wrote about why she became UU and she said that when she was growing up Methodist she always bristled at the idea of “child like faith” because it felt like “someone was trying to pull one over on me.”  The conversation that I wish I could have with her is that I think true “childlike faith” is so much deeper. Children are curious, they ask lots of questions about the world and like to figure things out. I think to have "childlike faith" is to keep exploring the world and having a sense of curiosity, love, creativity, and joy. It means to keep exploring and embrace the fact that you are still learning.

By this definition, my mom totally had a sense of “childlike faith.”  She was an incredibly curious person who found joy in solving problems. She had a deep love of computers and figuring out her way around different systems and programming languages. She found meaning in making order out of chaos and finding patterns. She would say things like “sometimes the quilt shows you what it wants to be.” She was skeptical about God but had this deep love of life and learning about how the world works.

My mom was more of an atheist leaning UU. I consider myself a theist leaning agnostic. I believe in some sort of God force but how I define it is constantly shifting. Being UU had a flexibility to it- one of our principles is that everyone has their own “free and responsible search for truth and meaning.” My basic summary of UUism is “everyone may resonate with different ideas of why we’re here and where we’re going but we all agree that everyone has worth and dignity and we can work to create a heaven on earth while we discuss philosophy over coffee.”

I like this definition of childlike faith as curiosity and love of learning because it doesn’t mean you have to be directing that faith at a specific deity and in fact how you view that deity or deities may change over time. You don’t have to believe in any gods and still have a great love of the world and how it’s unfolding. When we are in a state of  joyful curiosity and creativity we are connected with something greater.

So what do I have faith in?

I have faith in the joy found in the present moment.

I have faith in my ability to continue to learn about the world.

I have faith that everyone has something to teach us and sometimes the same lessons come back to us until we have fully learned them.

I have faith in the journey.

I have faith that this list will continue to evolve and change as I evolve and change.