Awakening to Wholeness is a series of prompts, reflections, and teachings about how holding the tension of opposites can help us to heal division and experience wholeness. If you feel moved to share your own reflections, we invite you to email us with the subject line “Wisdom of Opposites” or tag us on social media with #EHoPWisdomOfOpposites.
This is a guest post by EHoP community member Dianne Schlichting, in response to “Naming Opposites: An Exercise.”
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The topic of opposites and how we pay attention to them interests me. For example, what is the opposite of unbelief? What is the opposite of doubt?
Some might answer, faith. If faith is a stable, unchallenged, static reality, perhaps “faith” would be a suitable response. But what if the opposite of doubt or of unbelief is not faith at all: what if it is risk?
People who risk ask questions. They push against the borders, the walls, the restrictions that hem them in. They bat around ideas without fear of reprisal; they challenge current ways of thinking or of doing things.
It is often uncomfortable to be around risk takers, especially if you yourself like to color within the lines. Risk takers do not! The questions they ask often rock boats, challenge authorities, make “believers” uncomfortable.
And yet, isn’t faith supposed to be about stretching our belief systems, testing the waters of expanding what it means to “belong” to a group, a church, a community? Ought we not to be prophets and vision seekers? Would I risk my reputation as a “faith-filled” person to question the ground upon which I stand? Risky, huh?
Join the conversation! If you feel moved to share your reflections—either in response to one of our posts, or on the topic of the wisdom of opposites more broadly—we invite you to email us with the subject line “Wisdom of Opposites” or tag us on social media with #EHoPWisdomOfOpposites.
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Dianne Schlichting
Dianne is a member of EHoP; she and her husband John value the opportunity to share contemplative prayer and outreach with others who make the House of Prayer their spiritual home. Dianne is a wife, mother, and grandmother who loves spending time in nature, especially canoeing with John.
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