The more clearly we see the truths of the world - and especially the fundamental impermanence of all life - the more deeply the need for faith calls out to us. How can we live happily in a world, after all, where tragedy strikes day in and day out, where suffering seems as inevitable as night, where death is the final reward for a life well lived?
Faith is one clear-eyed answer to that question. Faith invites us to rest with ease and hope amid the many dangers of the world. It offers us some deeper conviction that everything is going to be okay, even when things are messy (which is usually), and even when things don't turn out the way we'd like (which is often). It enables us to align ourselves with life and with love, even in the face of death.
Faith requires a willingness to be held in the hands of a  mystery far greater than our small selves can comprehend. It asks us to broaden our vision beyond this one moment and into the long arc of time. It engenders a refusal to give up on life, regardless of our circumstances.
Just what are we placing our faith in? First and foremost, we have faith in ourselves. We trust we have the strength of heart and mind to manage with steadiness whatever life throws our way. We may not always like it and we may sometimes struggle, but we trust that we have the inner resources and wisdom to respond with love and care.
We can also rest our faith in humanity, in the fundamental goodness of life. We can ally ourselves with the possibility that each of us longs for the same thing: to love and be loved, to participate with heartfelt engagement in the life we are given. Lots of us get confused along the way - and some of us even cause great pain and suffering - but at heart we all share the same deep yearning for connection and care. And so very many of us, together in service to our greater good, create a network of invisible hands that support and carry us all.
And perhaps, with faith and in faith, we can rest our minds and our hearts in the promise of some greater vitality that enlivens both ourselves and the world. We trust this larger vision of the world to carry on in some miraculous flow, with or without our small dramas of the day, always urging us forward, revealing to us the many ways we can lean into the light, no matter what this day may bring.
Our call then is to keep moving forward, in fullness and in faith, even we have no idea where our path is headed. Emboldened by faith, we relax into the greater light of the world, especially when we are feeling fearful and uncertain. We live with the deep conviction that if we take good care of each moment, then life will take care of itself.
Life sparkles and we move forward. Life devastates and still we get out of bed. We commit day in and day out to living in communion with life's greater flow, to broadening our small-minded view into a trusting relationship with the never-ending stream of life.
And then, in recognition of the faithfulness that holds us all, we spread ourselves out into the world, sharing our gifts and our love with everyone and everything around us.