Hi there! With summer now in full force, it's hard to believe that just a couple months ago, the kids were still having snow days at school. But now, we are in my favorite portion of the year, the second half. I've always loved June to December. Summer and autumn are my favorite seasons, and November and December bring my birthday, Thanksgiving, and the Christmas season. I'm taking classes over the summer, so no school break for me since they began right after spring term ended and run until the fall term begins. My first break will be between the two subterms of fall semester. I will get a week off in mid October. Right now, I'm taking a class in counseling techniques (which I love) and statistics (which I most definitely do NOT!!!!) Only taking stats because it's required. I will refrain from any further comments on it because when I think about stats, the words that come to mind aren't ones that should be coming out of the mouth (or keyboard) of a Jesus-following, church going, nice mama, such as myself. Besides, I don't want to shock my children!
I came across a quote that really stirred me, so I wanted to share it. But first a little backstory. Ordinarily, I'm not super into inspirational quotes. There's nothing wrong with most of them, per se. It's just that some are so overused, they've become cliche. And I have to admit, that I find the parodies of some of them absolutely hilarious. But this one just had such a ring of truth to it and really encouraged me.
"Faith is believing BEFORE what will only make sense AFTER."
I find this perspective so helpful when I see the dissonance between a situation in the present and the truth of God's Word. I know that this causes many to doubt and some to abandon their faith, and those who never believed in the first place to mock either openly or in the smug silence of self-assured superiority.
But I find this quote so encouraging. Maybe it's because I've lived long enough to have seen this demonstrated. I've had experiences where the temporal reality of what I could see, hear, or feel was in complete contrast to God's promises of blessing, joy, goodness, provision, justice, or peace. Times when believing in the truth of God's goodness or His care for me went against every shred of earthly evidence. Where reliance upon human logic alone would scream, "Impossible!" and consider faith an outmoded perspective at best or a dangerous delusion at worst. And yes, during these times, I have wobbled and wavered, struggling to bring synthesis between belief and immediate experience. My faith hasn't always been strong in the midst of pain, suffering, or injustice because, of course, we want everything to make sense. After all, how can anyone really trust in God if He's chaotic? And in the middle of our experiences, life can seem void of coherence as we desperately seek to keep afloat when adversity floods our path. And even when we look to God, it's still hard. Though relief can come, it never comes soon enough to suit us. At least, that's been my experience.
Still, even after some of the flood waters have receded, even when experiencing God's presence and comfort, the struggle or adversity or situation doesn't often make sense. But I don't believe the problem is with God. Nor do I see this as showing that He isn't real or doesn't care. It simply comes down to a matter of viewpoint or perspective. If I can only see one piece of a 5000 piece jigsaw, it makes no sense whatsoever. If someone says, "This piece has a necessary place in the completion of this beautiful picture of a treasure filled palace," I believe them despite my severely limited perspective. Even the most cynical skeptic does. And when there are ten or twenty pieces that have been put together, it still might not make sense. It's just a shape or a line or curve.
During the process of putting together the puzzle (not that I speak from experience because I HATE jigsaw puzzles --- I find them way too tedious to get any enjoyment from working on them), some things may become clearer as we move further along. Other times, we might think we know what something looks like, but as time passes, we find out it's different from how we first perceived it. Finally, there are some elements that will only make sense after the entire puzzle has been assembled, things that will require us to remain in the "before" portion of faith for our entire lives. We will only be able to see how they make sense after we have left this earth.
Though I admit I don't like not knowing the details, I do find encouragement to stand firm in faith, despite living in the here and now of BEFORE. I'm able to do this by remembering that my life is in the hands of an all powerful, all loving, all knowing God, who calls me His child, and who will also lead me on the path to AFTER after beautiful AFTER!
"For we live by faith, not by sight." 2 Corinthians 5:7
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