belief, trust, love.

Belief is hard. 
If you believe in God, odds are you have firsthand experience with how difficult it can be to keep believing, to keep the faith, when it would be much easier to give it up.


Trust is harder. 
If believing in a God you cannot see is hard, trusting that he knows what he's doing can be even harder. Trusting that he knows what he's doing when your life seems to be falling down around you, or your friends' lives are falling down around them - or when you look at the state of the world and wonder where God is in it all. Trusting that why things happen isn't always something we can understand right away, or trusting that sometimes the "why" isn't really that important. 


Love is hardest. (I think.) 
Far too many people who claim belief in God live in fear of the God in whom they believe. That's not to say we shouldn't be mindful of God's justice - but only relating to God in fear is no way to build a relationship with him. Love is paramount - the crucifix should remind us of sacrificial love - the love Christ has for us, the love we (hopefully!) have for him, and the love we come to have for all people by seeing him in each person we meet. Love takes our belief in God and our trust in his goodness, and puts them in action.


Belief... trust... love. These things are not trivial, and they're not easy. It would be easier to think God was a figment of our imaginations, that religion is worthless, that this universe is one giant cosmic accident, and that there are no reasons for the things that happen to us. And yes, it is easier to walk through life seeing people for their failings and flaws instead of first seeing them as loved children of God who aren't that different from us at the end of the day.


And no matter where we are in belief, trust, or love, we're all struggling - whether we're struggling to move forward, or simply struggling to hold our ground and keep from sliding back. No matter where we're at, it can be difficult to recognize that God is at work in our lives, even when it's not obvious to us. 


In that vein, there are several people in my life who are currently going through extremely difficult times - things that are absolutely testing their belief, trust, and love. The details are as complex for each of them as they are irrelevant here. God knows their needs - please pray for them. 


+Peace and good.