Holy Fool

I am currently in the basement of my home, watching a ladybug traversing the drop ceiling.  I wonder if it has any idea where it is?  Does it know the difference between inside and outside?  Does it know that it is actually upside down?  The other curious thing is that it was actually here last night, it hasn't moved even two-feet from where it was then.  What is it eating?  What is it drinking?  Is it letting out tiny ladybug poops that are so tiny that you would never see them with your naked eye?

I sound a bit like my four year old son with all of those questions.  In the end though, i think it is wonderfully marvelous that we have  been given such inquisitive minds.  If we were all satisfied with things just the way they are then there is a good chance we would not be where we are today.  Look at all of the animals of the world, only a very few ask questions of their surroundings.  Men, apes, dolphins all have shown capacity to process and ask questions of their surroundings.  It is a rare thing in nature to question what you have in front of you and to try and alter the outcome of a situation.

My friendly ladybug doesn't ask any questions, it just is.  My ape and dolphin friends ask a limited set of questions pertinent to food sources and mating but only humans question their own existence and its meaning.  We are the only creatures given the additional dimension of faith.  Faith is an interesting part of our beingness as humans.  There are those that claim to have no faith, I would argue they have placed their faith in the statement that they have no faith.  Others place their faith in themselves, in others, or in God.

Faith isn't something you are ever given more of, or have taken away.  It is rather an awareness of our own internal allegiance to this, that or the other.  Faith is a compass.  The needle of faith always points towards God, but we can manipulate the field around the magnet to get it to point this way or that.  Like my ladybug we wander the ceiling thinking it's the floor or the wall.  We think we are outside when we are really inside.  If you want your faith to point true north then you must ask God to remove the conflicting magnets that have caused you to pursue a life lived in a false direction and restore the original orientation of the compass.

I pray today that my compass should be aligned correctly, that God would strip away those false magnets that drag the compass of my faith into leading me away from God.