Last week, we shared a few beliefs of The Kaleid Project in our email to you.
We shared our belief in holding the tension, belief in Jesus as our guide, belief in orienting ourselves inside of difficult conversations, and belief in face to face dialogue as the best means for understanding.
For those of us who love to ask the question behind the question, we’re offering a brief thought about belief today. What does it mean to believe? What sets belief apart from just knowing something?
Consider this scholarship about how belief intersects culture and faith:
“I began to realize that belief...is only a very recent...enthusiasm that surfaced only in the west in the 17th century. The word ‘belief’ itself originally meant ‘to love, to prize to hold dear.’ In the 17th century it narrowed its focus...to mean an intellectual assent to a set of propositions, a credo. ‘I believe:’ it did not [used to] mean ‘I accept certain creedal articles of faith.’ It meant: ‘I commit myself, I engage myself.’
“What I’ve found, across the board, is that religion is about behaving differently….First you do something, you behave in a committed way, and then you begin to understand the truths of religion. And religious doctrines are meant to be summons to action. You only understand them when you put them into practice.”
Karen Armstrong, religious historian, in her 2008 TED Talk
As we work to build a community of trust within The Kaleid Project, we seek to be women who believe - who actively love and hold dear - our commitment to the dual realities of Christ as our hope and the world as a complicated place. We want to practice this belief by committing ourselves to being in honest community with other women who actively hold these things dear, as well.
It was a joy to do the work of belief with those in our (first ever) virtual book club on the book White Awake this week. Thanks to those of you who joined us!
As the sorrowful and hopeful father said to Jesus in Mark 9, “Lord, I believe; help my unbelief!”
May you be blessed today as you grow as a believing woman...
A woman who prizes and holds dear by committing and engaging yourself in the things that God has created you for on this beautiful fall day.
Blessings!
P.S. Be encouraged by this beautiful anthem on Belief:
Rich Mullins Creed and Interview
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