I was speaking to a friend about faith and its place in everyday life.

He told me that many ideas to which he had held fast early on in his spiritual journey, he now dismissed as false, even damaging beliefs that had led him away from real growth.  Practices that he had once revered as a zealous devotion to spiritual ideals, he now saw to be superficial, sanctimonious and immature.  Particularly, he expressed a disdain for a way of life that he felt had drawn him into a delusional, religiously themed fantasy world.  As such, he had been re-examining all of his beliefs but did not wish to throw the baby out with the bathwater. 

"Do you know what I think is the difference between fantasy and faith?" I asked him.  "A fantasy is an idea that you use to get away from the world.  Faith is an idea that gives you the courage to live in it."