Larry Parker: Faith Is a Comfort to Me

I've missed Beyond Blue reader Larry Parker's wise and insightful comments on Beyond Blue. I didn't realize how much I missed them until he wrote this in response to Vincent on the combox of my post, "What If You Have No Faith?"

Vincent:

I am a fellow traveler (bipolar disorder type II), so I can empathize with your suffering.

I think everyone in the Beyond Blue community was wonderfully supportive of you, but I would say Dawn Nelson today and the anonymous person on May 17 -- both of whom spoke of dropping theology in favor of spiritual truth -- gave you the best advice.

From my Catholic upbringing, some of the Protestant denominations I have attended, my girlfriend's Buddhism, and other religions, philosophies and medical discoveries I have studied, I -- in the words of 12-step -- "take what I like and leave the rest."

But this is faith, too. Indeed, the subject of the recent movie "Doubt" is one seen numerous places even in Judeo-Christian tradition (Job, 2 Corinthians 12, Ecclesiastes, even the Genesis creation narrative) -- faith is different from certainty. And one cannot truly believe unless there is the possibility of not believing, as Meryl Streep as the ultimate traditionalist nun finds to her anguish at the end of the movie.

One thing my studies and prayers (in the most general sense of that word) have taught me is that there is some purpose to human suffering -- depression, schizophrenia, cancer, natural disasters, heart disease, shootings, car accidents, Alzheimer's, diabetes, you name it -- that is just beyond our frail capacity to understand it. Perhaps we will understand after death -- perhaps not -- but for now we must (again going back to 12-step) accept the things we cannot change.

And given our own frailty that leads us sometimes (for some, often) to not even have control of our own moods -- or our own minds -- this has been of tremendous, if paradoxical, comfort to me.

I wish you the best.

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