Retreat: Naked Faith Rocks in my Box

This past weekend New Leaf Church went on retreat. Unlike some of the past retreats there was a distinct flavor of sharing and reflection.

One of the activities was to decorate small river rocks with aspects of faith journey, the corner stones of our personal faith.

I attempted many times to distill my faith for 5 core things, events, or people that help me define what I believe.

When I got close, the paint would not stick.

I turned to the box and decorated with growth lines, the kind that trees hide deep inside themselves. They tell or the weather during that season of growth.

So what is on my naked faith rocks?

Everywhere I go, I carry the taste of loss. One of my rocks stands for the deep sorrow only a close death can bring. The perspective and heart ache when physical embodiment of imperfect unconditional love has flown.

Another stone has faults and seams in it, battle scars and beauty together. This stone reminds me of my continual, ongoing struggle with depression. My faith is a life boat and an anchor, sometimes I decide to climb aboard and other times I struggle in the water "on my own". My life has been marred with beauty and pain invisible at first glance, but deeply present.

All my stones are not washed smooth, some roughness remains, some evidence of the journey incomplete, the journey that will never fully wear away the marks of struggle and doubt, loss and beauty and hope in the pit of utter hopelessness. I, like my faith will never me complete, never perfect, never more than a work in progress and I would have it no other way.

So, you see my faith rocks are naked, bearing marks proudly, with humility and shame, and many more the like invisible at a glance.

What are the corner stones of your faith, the anchor and give buoyancy to your life?