People can be entertaining, notable, or ridiculous, but the people who act on their faith are the ones who get our respect. I’m not talking about the kind of faith that stubbornly tries to prove a human ideology and I’m not talking about the kind of respect that culminates in discrimination or idolization. It is the action of a faith in and a respect for a universal shared Intelligence that gets our humble respect.
In 1890, Harland Sanders was born. After working at minimal paying jobs for 55 years, a financially broke Sanders, on faith, takes his special fried chicken on the road. After 5 more years, his intense hard work pays off and Colonel Sanders Kentucky Fried Chicken franchise becomes worldwide.
Bonnie Pruett Wurzbacher, rose to her position of senior vice president at Coca-Cola when she had very few peers or role models among women. Wurzbacher appealed to her faith in a God who is not a respecter of persons and found mentors in Christian men, coming to the conclusion that in any vocation we can glorify God.
Often, it is the unsuspecting layman, the housewife, the farmer, the soldier or other humble, common people who demonstrate great faith in God. Faith in God is a far cry from faith in money, status-quo, a book, a religion, hierarchal directives, the economy, or a job. We must never lose sight that the universal spiritual Intelligence has a simple plan which is no respecter of persons, and doesn’t require any special credentials to believe it.
Respect also goes to people who know when to move on even at the climax of their job well done. Donald Hodel, president and CEO of Focus on the Family, announced his retirement 22 months after assuming his post. Hodel was acutely aware that his successor, Jim Daly, was prepared to do the job.
When we respect the bravery and good-intent of people who truly are making in a dent in the hardened human egotism, we feel self-respect.
From 21st Century Science and Health, “Faith, if only belief, is like a motor piston shifting between nothing and something, having no fixity. Faith, advanced to spiritual understanding, is the evidence gained from Spirit, which rebukes mistaken mindsets of every kind and establishes the claims of God.”
Healing Science Today 