This I Believe

There’s this series on NPR that I love called “This I Believe.” In it, everyday people become eloquent poets of their experiences, detailing the deepest beliefs of their hearts.

These people open their veins and share their pains, their struggles, their hopes. To say that it moves me would be an understatement. (En route to the Lyric I’ve caught myself crying to the words of a woman struggling to help her daughter overcome addiction – she now believes in the power of support.)

Beautiful stories aside, the series always reminds me that we are all human.

I shared some impassioned words with a friend today. She is a woman who I love and cherish and respect. She is a force - a woman who is dealing with uncertainty and frustration head-on. Things pummel her every day that she cannot control.

Despite all of our communities’ hopes and prayers, God just hasn’t let up yet. I really don’t know why He hasn’t. (Though I believe that He will.)

So I got to thinking about what I do know. I know that I am with her.

If I could call down fire from heaven to wash her clean, I would do it. If I could take on her pain, I would do it. In that aching passion, I am struck that this is my belief:

I believe in the self-renewing abundance of faith.

We will always have enough faith to give a little away to people who need it.

In full disclosure, I’m still in the process of understanding why this is. I may never know, other than to give full, majestic, divine credit to God for it.

I simply know from my own experience that I will not give up my faith for the people I love, nor will I cease to hope and pray on their behalf.

This faith has become self-renewing. Believing in right and good things for others makes me less selfish. I can see their prayers delivered. I can believe again that God is in the business of deliverance. I can know again that He does it for me as well.

As I re-realized today, I know that when we ache and weep and ask for the blessings of the ones we love, well, God just hears those things. And I believe in the aftermath of our wailing, we find faith. We find moments of healing and restoration. For ourselves. For others.

“Then you will look and be radiant,
your heart will throb and swell with joy;
the wealth on the seas will be brought to you,
to you the riches of the nations will come.”
Isaiah 60:5