Here is a suggestion for a game to play at your next party. Write down this question on a piece of paper and pass it around. Make sure that everyone gets a chance to answer it. The question is, “How important is “belief” to you? I wonder what kind of answers you would get? Tell everyone that they can not qualify the question by asking questions about the question. Some will be tempted to ask things like, “Do you mean my religious beliefs?” or “Do you mean beliefs in general?” Just tell them to answer the question the best they can the way it is written, which is again: “How important is belief to you?” It will make for an interesting game I promise you that! Eventually someone in the group will say that belief is so important that it makes all things happen. This is the answer that the famous architect of the 50’s and 60’s Frank Lloyd Wright would have given. Frank Lloyd Wright was the controversial architect that created weird shaped houses and buildings that seemed to come out of the future. He used designs that many architects of his time said could not be done. You may recall one such house in the movie “North by Northwest”, an Alfred Hitchcock movie where the villain’s safe house hung over the side of Mount Rushmore on steel girders. Frank Lloyd Wriight is the chap from whom we take our quote today. He is the one who said, “The thing always happens that you really believe in; and the belief in a thing makes it happen.” Actually, Wright’s ideas are not so extraordinary. Many people believe like he that things happen because our belief in them makes them happen. On the other hand, Wright said two things in that quotes and some people find these two statements a mystical match-up. Wright said “The thing always happens that you really believe in”, and “the belief in a thing makes it happen.” Some would argue that one thing has nothing to do with the other. What about you? Where do you stand when it comes to belief and Wright’s presumption? This is another one of those positive thinking statements that crosses the spiritual metaphysical line so it is important that we get it correct. Part “A” of his statement is harder to agree with than part “B”. Consider, in part “B” all he is saying is that – beliefs have power and it is that power that makes things happen. Without that kind of power most things would not get done. He has my complete agreement on that. “Belief in a thing makes it happen.” However part “A” is saying something different. It is saying that things happen that you believe. Well, isn’t also true that things happen that we sometimes don’t believe? Absolutely! I am in a middle aged man and I still experience things that happen that I just could not believe. But before you are quick to agree with that last statement I suggest you pause and ponder it a bit longer. I must ask myself openly and honestly if I have become a believer because a thing happened that I could not believe. Suddenly I am in a new reality. Time has put me there. Just because I did not believe it doesn’t mean that I still don’t believe it. It is very possible that my disbelief has turned into belief over time. Now as I begin to look at the evidence I am beginning to wonder if part “A” isn’t also true. Example: I do not believe that nice attractive women often pick bad men to be their love-interest or partner. In fact that is true. The nicest prettiest women do go after the seemingly seedy characters in men. And though I refuse to believe it, it happens time and again. Upon examination my belief has changed over time and “The thing that happens which I say I don’t believe, I really do believe” making part “A” agreeable after-all. But Frank Lloyd Wright did not mean this as two separate statements. He really did mean it to be a mystical, spiritual meaining if you will. The thing always happens that you really believe in is meant for us to reflect on the idea that to what extent we believe in a thing it will happen. Further, it is because the power of our belief is what makes a thing happen. This statement taken at face value brings up all kinds of debate for it represents something more than the two separate statements. It is almost as if Frank Lloyd Wright was trying to tell us a grand secret of the universe. I take his side once again. I too believe in the sacredness of the power of belief. I would further add to his statement that once you have attained belief, or once you know a thing to be true in fact, it no longer requires faith because it is known. Faith is something that is needed before we know for certain. Belief follows faith in order. I believe one of our missions on earth is to become knowledgeable. In a spiritual explanation one could say that process comes in three stages. The first is complete unknowning. The second is having faith in a thing (going with it even though you do not believe yet). The third is knowing it as fact, (faith is no longer required). That is belief. Once we see life in those three stages, Frank Lloyd Wright’s presumption takes on the greater meaning I spoke about. Read this article a second time to get the thrust. So why is this important to our self empowerment? Because in seeking self empowerment one looks for the sources of power from within. One source is belief; but before there is belief there is need of faith and knowing this will help us to be self empowered.