Faith – A Seed of Excellence

Posted January 6th, 2007

“In genuine cultivation of practice, in the end there is just one road: carrying out vows.” Master Nan Huau Chin expresses my beliefs about faith well. A belief system that is not practiced has little value. My wife and I were talking recently about marriage. Like most couples, we wonder why we got together and why we’ve stayed together for thirty-six years.

I told her that, for me, it has to do with the wedding vows – the richer, poorer and the sickness, health and the other promises. Faith in someone or self or something requires making a serious commitment. I do not make many vows, but the few I make determine how I live daily.

I have to practice all the time. The practice is imperfect. It can also be frustrating, exhausting, and boring. When I vow to do something, the vow leads to goals, plans, actions, and evaluations. These are necessary to know how well I am keeping faith with my philosophy, my mission, my values.

Faith, as a seed of excellence, works the same in all of life, including work. When a company or a person has faith in an idea or a change for improvement, that is the first step. A biblical verse says, “Faith without works is dead.” What does that mean, when applied to business?

It might be that all involved must believe in the new idea or change; have faith that it will work and vow to make it work. The understanding and acceptance of anything new or different is a huge step, and takes time. Making the idea work is ten times harder. Most companies declare that the new idea or change is the way that work will be done. Then they forget to develop an implementation plan, thinking that the vow is sufficient. Saying something is so doesn’t make it so.

Faith as a seed of excellence for me involves the vision, the vow, the quixotic journey to help others understand and accept, practicing what I believe all the time, and the humble realization that it takes all involved collaborating in practical ways to keep the faith(and do the real work).

This entry was posted on Saturday, January 6th, 2007 at 11:29 am and is filed under Seeds of Excellence.