We can keep faith in a bubble of belief so that we don't see it having direct relevance in day-to-day living. I've worked with several people who are very devoted to religion and pride themselves on their faith. But they have no trust in themselves, and they don't entrust themselves to life. In fact, they use their belief system to keep life at a distance. Their belief in religion is absolute, it is the whole of life; but when they are asked to trust a person or a new development in their own lives, they run for cover.
Belief can be fixed and unchanging, but faith is almost always a response to the presence of the angel, like the one who stirs the waters. Or it could be the angel who appears to the Virgin Mary and demands absurd faith in his message that she is pregnant with a divine child. "Fiat mihi," she says to the angel, "Let it happen to me even though I don't understand."
This angel, Gabriel, appears more often than you might think, telling us that we are pregnant with a new form of life that we should accept and trust.
~Thomas Moore
