4 Reasons It’s Okay to Lose Your Faith by Kathy Escobar l Inspiring Lessons of Faith l Insipring Words l How to Stay Faithful

Faith Can Evolve Past the Systems it Started In

Systems have a tendency to thrive on homogeneity because it keeps things predictable, comfortable, and efficient. This is why churches often struggle with people shifting in their faith. Consciously or unconsciously, churches are built upon a fairly static model of belief and service. They often don’t take into account that as people’s faith matures, they outgrow the values of certainty, conformity, and affiliation of their early faith and begin to long for greater mystery, freedom, and diversity. This is a sign of growth and maturity, yet it’s often not perceived that way by churches because it threatens the status quo.

A Little Faith Goes a Long Way

Jesus said that the “faith of a mustard seed could move mountains” (Matthew 17:20). There are many ways to interpret that, but I think it’s a beautiful reminder that a little faith goes a long way. I often ask people who are shifting in their faith, “What’s one thing you still believe despite how much you’ve lost?” The answers are usually incredibly powerful, simple, and diverse. Deep truths supersede a long list of doctrinal beliefs, and a little faith goes a long way.

I love what Father Richard Rohr says about faith and freedom: “All great spirituality teaches about letting go of what you don’t need and who you are not. Then, when you can get little enough, naked enough, and poor enough, you’ll find that the little place where you really are is ironically more than enough and is all that you need. At that place, you will have nothing to prove to anybody and nothing to protect from other people. That place is called freedom. It’s the freedom of the children of God.”

Losing faith doesn’t have to mean losing it all. In fact, losing faith can actually bring true freedom.