Not Truth, But Faith

Never give up; you never know until you try.

The title for today’s post comes from a quote by poet Edna St. Vincent Millay: “Not Truth, but Faith it is that keeps the world alive.” I ran across it as I was thumbing through one of the jillion books on my bookcase, and I think it struck me because I had just been reading through some old issues of writing magazines and found an article pooh-poohing the use of such Yoda-like backward phrasing. I agree with the advice to forego convoluted phrasing, unless done very sparingly and for a specific reason, and I agree with Edna, or “Vincent,” which her friends called her, according to Poets.org, because I think she had a reason for her phrasing.

Truth can be good, but for many, the everyday truth of their lives is a study in deprivation, degradation, violation, isolation—the list goes on and on. If not for faith that tomorrow will be better than today, they would succumb to complete despair and wither as surely as an autumn leaf. Yes, I could add that God’s Truth—the truth of His love and promises, etcetera, keeps us going, but if we don’t have faith in that Truth, we lose hope and wither.

Many of us have been there. We’ve found ourselves in circumstances we hated with every molecule of our DNA and that hurt like an old-fashioned operation with dirty instruments and no anesthesia. Bad marriages. Bad jobs, or no jobs. Death of loved ones. If living meant living as we were, we honestly wanted to die. Maybe only faith that things would get better was what kept us from ending our lives.

And so my challenge today is much like one I’ve issued before. I’ve encouraged readers to be “nice” to people, and today I encourage everyone to do what you can to foster faith, in yourself and in others, that tomorrow will be better than today. At the very least, even if circumstances remain the same, you’ve had more practice in coping with them.