How real is your faith?

This week my wife and I attended our local cinema to view the movie Defiance.

Defiance is a movie set in Russia during World War 2 and has the tag line:

Freedom begins with an act of defiance!

The film is about some Jewish brothers in Nazi-occupied Eastern Europe who escape into the Belarussian forests, where they join elements of the Soviet Army operating behind German lines and construct a village in order to protect themselves and about 1,000 Jewish non-combatants.

We had a family interest in the film because my father in law, Josip – who is a Russian national – was a partisan in Yugoslavia fighting the Germans and their allies/collaborators. Josip was a teenager whilst in action against the Germans, being 17 when the war ended. The scenes and activity in the Defiance film were very similar to what he experienced. My wife has visited some of the bunkers and tunnels in the forest where her father fought and lived during the war, commenting that they looked very similar to those in the film. You can read more about my father in law’s activities here on my personal blog.

Anyway, back to this blog post and why I am writing about the film.

During the film, a Jewish Rabbi became very ill and lay dying. Just before he died, he looked at the primary character (hero) and explained that he almost lost his faith, but that it had been renewed because of the hero’s assistance and intervention in the situation.

The film claims to be based on a true story so presumably the part about the Rabbi is true. Even if it isn’t, a crisis of faith is common, regardless of one’s particular religion, or standing within it.

This aspect brings me to an interesting and important point:

Faith should be more than a head thing. Spirituality is about a relationship with Spirit. A knowing. We as people never forget other important people we have known in our life. We remember them. Why? Because we knew them.

Obviously, differing religions and faiths have varied concepts, rules or ideas about how ‘close’ one can be to Spirit (the Deity concerned) however let me ask this:

How can you really be loyal to and truly follow Someone or Something you do not know; or do not hear from? Where is the relationship? When the crunch comes you may well have nothing.

How much better to really know you have a connection to and relationship with Spirit!

And here is something else to ponder….

Spirit, God, The Divine, Cosmos, or whatever you may want to call such, is bigger than any particular religion or faith system. You can indeed at times hear from Spirit in ANY religious tradition. It does not mean however that all of what that religion teaches is correct. Religions cannot all be correct – contradiction is rampant.

In closing then, the hero’s assistance may well have been God’s intervention. I have no idea either way. What I am sure of however is that it was good and just. I am also sure that it is important to stand up to despotism and evil, such as Adolf Hitler, the Nazis and their allies inflicted. I might also add that at varying times in my life I have experienced great kindness from Jews, Catholics,  Black and Asian people for example.

What really matters is the inner Spirit of people – good or evil.

Which are you?

Where and Who and What  is your source?

Related posts:

1. Easter – the real meaning.
2. Where is your self esteem?
3. Shamanism is spiritual.
4. Purpose of this blog.
5. Fix the problems on the inside, then the rest takes care of itself.