Hope in an hour of darkness.

From Here

Faith is in many ways a simple thing. All that is asked of the believer is for them to believe. In the Sermon of the Apple Seed, the Daughter speaks to the faithful saying:

(36)It is not needful that you should seek knowledge of the highest things outside the sacred Mythos and My words. (37)For I have revealed to you all that is needful that you should attain liberation; and what I have not revealed, that is not needful.

We are exhorted in these words to act upon faith. Faith in Dea in all her guises and faith in that which has been revealed. Simple faith is enshrined within the Filianic and Déanic belief systems as the ideal way to move towards Dea. Paired with love, it is known as the Heart Road.

Faith, however, is not as simple as we wish it to be when we are struggling with the world's ills. In my most recent convalescence, I lived upon gritty, difficult faith. My heart and soul bled with deep wounds from my illness. Despair was woven into the very air I breathed within the hospital walls, it seemed. The cheerfulness of the nurses and their tireless compassion reminded me that life did indeed progress beyond illness and into recovery. This simple truth became part of the ladder of faith that helped me claw my way out of the temptation to simply give up on life.

It was faith that I could recover that spurred me on to take my medications and eat my meals. It was faith that I was not a hopeless case that brought me out of my self imposed seclusion within that tiny cell that was my assigned room. Faith sometimes is an action that we choose and it is one that requires a considerable amount of strength to engage in it. At times, we forget that our decision to proceed as though there will be a tomorrow is an act of profound faith and courage.

The sun will continue to rise, if we believe it will or not. The rain will continue to fall, if we have faith in each drop and its course, or not. Some things are fixed by the will of the Divine. We do not have the means to know the measure of our life's time. While we may not need have faith that tomorrow's sunrise will greet us, it is a powerful act of faith to believe that we shall awake to greet the sun. I was reminded in the course of my illness and am continually reminded as I progress through my recovery, that faith is a decision. It might be habitual to choose to have faith, but it is still a decision that we make each moment of our lives.

Pray for those who are lost and haven't the will to make that decision. I, in my hour of darkness, held hope that I could heal. That hope was an act of faith.