Some of my friends (involved in raising awareness of Darfur) have been writing "faith statements". I find that hard work, but in my little mileau now I find myself compelled to try my hand at it. I'll try to make my words as brief as possible with key ideas linked to explanations as best as I've been able to find them or write them. This will evolve. As it is now it reflects several ongoing conversations. By next year in Jerusalem I'll have written it so that my children can read it with a possibility of understanding.

1.   I believe that I can only function out of my consciousness. However I might like to put on the mind of God, I must work with what I have.
2.   I believe that my capacity is humble indeed, and I am reverent about the the many mysteries that are only maybe available to my contemplatation or to revelation.
3.   I believe that the bottom line for my work, my play, my being is to discern my possibilities in the greater mileau and to work to become them.
4.   I believe I am part of a planet, a species, a neighborhood, all of which are ever widening circles of connection about which I care. I believe in the interconnectedness of all this.
5.   I believe that I am driven by pain and by passion that may or may not be connected to all this. Whoever it was that recently wrote a book saying that our decisions made in an instant are "more often right than not" speaks a half truth. Our pain and our passion often is connected to our truth. But our creative insights, whatever it is that is new for us, comes out of our stillness. I trust my instincts, but I don't want to fail to see what is new and creative for me. I need more of that stillness.
6.   I believe we have a core. Toni Morrison calls it our beloved. I believe your or my "beloved" can be our connection to what is greater and is universal. If we wish, we can call that God.
7.   I believe that built into our way of thinking is an instinct to characterize or categorize things that really is a simplification of things too complex to easily handle. Sometimes these simplifications get deeply institutionalized and become givens when really they are assumptions or simplifications. God is one of these subjects. C.S.Lewis in "Mere Christianity" gave me the gift of knowing that God is beyond my capacity for comprehension. We have ways of thinking about God that are convenient for us. Here are a few:
   •   God denotes a deity who is believed by monotheists to be the sole creator and ruler of the universe.
   •   God is love.
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8.   I believe that we can avoid God by articulating principles we can all agree on. But personally I have no reluctance to embrace mystery and I've learned to accept the sisters joy and pain. I choose faith. What remains is to learn to live it out.
9.   I believe ....
10.   I believe ....
11.   I believe ....
12.   I believe ....