Don’t hope. Hope is fear in a mini skirt.

This is my favorite Bible message:  “Faith is the substance of things hoped for; the evidence of things not seen.”  This very encouraging idea was a gift from St. Paul.  St. Paul started out as an influential and successful lawyer, a rock star of biblical times.  One day he was walking along going to Damascus when he was hit by a monster flash of blinding light.  The light was so strong it knocked Paul down and instantly reversed all of his moral values. It would be as if Rush Limbaugh started a Barak Obama Facebook fan page and clicked “like” to everything the President said and did.

I want the same big whoosh of understanding that came to Paul. I wouldn’t mind if it knocked me down, too. I wouldn’t mind if, like Paul, I was blinded for three days.  If you want to read this quote or the whole epistle, you’ll find it in Hebrews 11:1.  It is embedded (love that word) in one of the letters St. Paul wrote to the Hebrews.  I would like the message even better if it didn’t have the word “hope” in it because hope, to me, is fear in a mini skirt. Paul’s teachings are often so comforting as to seem untrue. But they probably are true.

Why am I besotted with this message?  Because, like most writers, I want a little magic in the world.  And, according to this statement, everything I want (and everything you want) is already a reality and faith gives it substance.  That's not as easy as it sounds.  First you have to identify what it is you want. Then you have to think of it obsessively  (yes, obsessively) to the exclusion of its opposite.  My favorite guru, Neville, used to say the same thing but Neville deserves a blog all by himself and I'll do that another time.

I seem to be writing a lot about religion and the bible.  It's a big surprise to me.  I'm not particularly religious but I guess all those years of convent boarding school are kicking in. And Sister Francisca is probably still manipulating me from her grave.

I’m writing this blog today because tomorrow is Sample Sunday time and I will have to divert from my usual personal blogging and put in a sample of my writing.  If you're tired of reading samples of my writing, you can skip tomorrow's blog.