I hope. I believe. I know.

 I read an article about the differences in hoping, believing and knowing and it has resonated with me.  Because I have been thinking about this I thought it was worthy of a blog and challenge to readers. 

Life as I knew it changed 120 days ago.  With that change also came doubt.  My faith was shaken and I lacked understanding.  As my last blog indicated I was angry.  What I did do is continue to “hope.”  Hope that I would survive the pain that I endured and continue to endure today.   People say that you never “get over” a loss, but you learn to live with it.  I never knew what that meant.  What I know is that time marches on and we have no choice but to move with it.  The saying you have to go through it to get through it makes more sense to me. 

With that being said, several weeks ago God was leading me to read “The Shack” again.  I read it several years ago and I couldn’t even remember major details of the book.  However every time I walked by my book shelf God would be that small voice and say “pick it up.”  I fought it.  I can’t think of one book that I picked up to read a second time.  I often don’t finish books the first time.   I would walk by the shelf and be led to look that direction.  “The Shack” continued to glare at me.  Finally, I walked over and picked it up.  I figured that there must be something in that book that I needed to see again. 

I started reading…… then on page 92 I began to see exactly what I needed to see.    God was speaking to me through that book like he was speaking to Mack (the main character).  Page 92 said “I want to heal the wound that has grown inside of you and between us.”  Then it continued to say “When all you can see is your pain, perhaps then you lose sight of me.”  WOW!

I was losing sight of God. 

After I read that I starting thinking about the idea of hoping, believing and knowing.  Faith is knowing what we do not see.  Knowing comes with time.  Knowing comes with having experiences with God.  Knowing is stronger than believing and so much more than hoping.  Knowing requires that we TRUST. 

My challenge for you today is to examine where you are on the idea of hoping, believing, and knowing when it comes to your faith.  Sometimes we don’t see the whole picture, sometimes we have to take that step before we see the stair case.  Sometimes we just have to “know” that it is okay to lack understand as to why things happen. 

“God doesn’t always stop the storm, but if he doesn’t he will always calm HIS child.”