Keyboard commandos shouting at each other on Facebook, counter protestors yelling at each other with megaphones, politically charged vitriol everywhere. Americans can’t agree on anything nowadays, yet a December 2023 Pew Research Center study titled Spirituality Among Americans, shows that:
88% of Americans believe in God, higher power or spirit.
88%!!! WHAAAAT??? This is amazing!!
When I read this, I was blown away and absolutely ecstatic. There is finally something we all agree on!! Well, almost all of us. This is cause for celebration.
We are surrounded by seemingly challenging times and so much negativity, yet people are retaining their faith in a higher power or source of life greater than ourselves. Take a moment to close your eyes and thank the great universal source of life and love for uniting all of us together in faith. You can feel that connection to the divine and each and every person as we are united in our faith.
Now religious participation is way down, which is not surprising, but that light within us that is connected to the great light of life continues to shine in the darkness. We each individually feel that connection or at least believe it is there for us to access.
We have faith.
This faith is not religion or the belief in a specific religion, although for many it can be. We are strictly talking here about faith in a higher power that is greater than us and the research shows that almost all of us feel it or have faith in its existence beyond ourselves.
So if faith in a higher power is what unites us, it is not surprising that the official motto of the United States is “In God We Trust.” It is the one thing that unites us and the vast majority of Americans can agree on.
So we are united in something we cannot see, feel or touch in the physical world, yet it is the force that allows us to see clearly, feel deeply and touches our hearts and minds. How is this possible?
How is it that we are united by something unproven but about which so many of us are certain?
It is possible because we are all united by our composition, by what we are made off. We share the same origin and are made of the same elements that propel the universe forward and always have. Living an extraordinary life is no more difficult than recognizing that you are made of the same stuff as stars.
In Gandhi’s words,
My own experience has led me to the knowledge that the fullest life is impossible without an immovable belief in a Living Law in obedience to which the whole universe moves. A man without that faith is like a drop thrown out of the ocean bound to perish. Every drop in the ocean shares its majesty and has the honour of giving us the ozone of life.
The ocean, the ozone, the dirt, the trees, the animals, the stars and our bodies are all made of the same thing. We are all made of hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, carbon, calcium and iron. We are all made of stars, which is why we believe in a higher power greater than ourselves. We feel the infinite because that is what we are made of.
You are made of the same stuff as stars and are meant to shine.
This is not some metaphysical conjecture. The elements of your body come directly from the star that imploded to make earth. You feel a connection to the universe because you are the universe. You are not separate from your source. Carl Sagan, famous American astronomer and host of the Cosmos TV series you might remember, said it so simply and so perfectly,
The Nitrogen in our DNA,
The Calcium in our teeth,
The Iron in our blood,
The Carbon in our apple pies
We’re made in the interiors of collapsing stars.
WE ARE MADE OF STARSTUFF.
Our bodies are made of star stuff.
There are pieces of star within us all.
Someone from NASA’s Chandra Observatory, located at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, posted on X (Twitter),
The oxygen & carbon in your body was made by nuclear fusion in the interior of stars. Much of the iron in your body was forged during supernova explosions that occurred long ago & far away. And the hydrogen in your body, present in every molecule of water, came from the Big Bang.
Here is a great infographic produced by retired British doctor turned blogger, Grant Hutchinson, based on the book Nature’s Building Blocks by UK science writer and Cambridge professor John Emsley.
Why all this explanation about our composition?
Because it is imperative for us to see what we are made of and why it unites us in our belief in our universal source. You did not just show up from the uniting of two people, or perhaps implantation of a fertilized egg. You came from the universe.
Every element of your body came from beyond our current physical world. That is why we feel this amazing connection to a higher power. That is why 88% of Americans believe in God, a higher power or a spiritual force. We are all connected by that force which reverberates within us. We feel it within the cells of our body. We remember it.
You are made of the same stuff as stars and you are meant to shine.
You are meant to be expansive, abundant, and growing like the universe.
This can be overwhelming and seem distant, but it can also be a reassurance that we are all united, connected and all in this together. Our faith in the universal source and ourselves as a part of that higher power can ground us in faith and unite us for mutual greatness.
Faith can take us to new heights and show us our true nature.
Faith can heal physical wounds but it can also heal our emotional wounds.
We have to believe in that which is beyond our power and not be limited by that which we can see. Rather it is incumbent upon us to close our eyes and see our infinite capabilities, to go beyond the limitations of modern life. We can achieve almost anything we can conceive with the power of faith in the source of all light.
Dr. Martin Luther King said,
“Faith is taking the first step even when you don’t see the whole staircase.”
Faith is with all of us all the time. We may not regularly recognize that faith and pay attention to what it is telling us, yet the vast majority of us are connected by the uniting force that we all have faith and believe in that force that is greater than ourselves. That higher power and our faith in it has the ability to heal physical and emotional wounds and has the ability to guide us to a glorious life here now if we let it.
Are you willing to take the first step even if you don’t see the whole staircase?
Faith is what sustains us. Faith is everything that we are. To live the life of your dreams, you have to have faith in yourself, faith in others and faith in a higher power. Faith is not just imploring God, universal source or spirit in the times of crisis and tragedy to help you out.
Faith is the state of mind to clearly appreciate that all is transpiring in prefect harmony. Even when things don’t go our way and life takes us down to our darkest valleys, it is a part of where we are meant to be, where we are meant to learn, where we are meant to get our next great inspiration and those valleys set us up to reach our highest peaks. But to see that and get to that peak, you must have complete faith when you’re in the valley of despair.
The Lords prayer says “thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” Heaven is here now. It is not some later destination. It is a glorious, beautiful world if you decide to see it that way. Even as tragedies unfold, perhaps that is exactly as it is meant to be. To bring out the goodness in man.
When you see the world with the splendor of the great spirit all around, you can see love in everything and in everyone. That spirit known by a thousand names and that is the unnamable one is all around us always, if we just open our eyes and see.
Just seeing yourself with love in the mirror is an act of faith.
Faith in your future self.
Faith to love yourself.
Faith in your ability to forgive yourself and others.
Faith that you are meant for more in this life.
Faith in the power to transform your life to be that person you have always seen in your mind.
Faith that you are in control of your life.
Faith that your destiny is yours to design.
All we have to do is accept that faith and appreciate it completely, because we are it and it is us. To see that higher power as something we cannot fully describe yet is always there if we open our hearts and see. In the words of Gandhi,
There is an indefinable mysterious power that pervades everything. I feel it, though I do not see it. It is this unseen power that makes itself felt and yet defies proof, because it is so unlike all that I perceive.
As you are getting into this year, have faith in being your true self. Run toward your calling. We all have it. It calls to us regularly and we ignore it and go through the motions.
We do what we are “supposed to do.” We do what the modern world, our parents, our friends, coworkers, social media folks and society expect us to do. But that is not reality, that is not what the universe requires of you. It is not what you are capable of.
You know who you want be but you have to have faith that you can be your true self now. You have to have faith that you can heal those wounds that keep you stuck. Then after you move on from what has been holding you back, you take affirmative steps so that the staircase will appear. You have to build the staircase.
And why shouldn’t you live the bright life of your dreams this year?
You are made of the same stuff as stars and are meant to shine.
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