To Believe or Not To Believe
I was having a conversation with some people today about love and hope and faith. (You know, typical lunch topics.) It was surprisingly morbid, our little chat, especially when it had to do with love and hope and faith. This, however, was probably due to the fact that my fellow conversationalists didn't think much about love, they rarely sincerely hoped for things, and their faith was nearly missing altogether.
This fascinated me, because I am such a hopeful optimist. My faith is so very, very important to me. It defines who I am... and Who I put my hope in is integral to my being. So to hear such statements... such claims... claims such as "love will always be interrupted by distrust" and "it's silly to hope in something divine..." they broke my heart a little bit. And the worst part is, I'm in a foreign country with almost-strangers in whom I cannot confide. I feel like I'm on an island, almost. No one really understands the hope that I have, and worse than that, they're not always pleasant to be around.
And I know that I can get grumpy sometimes too. I'm not trying to point fingers in that direction, because travel is exhausting and it can bring out the worst in people sometimes. I get that. But the deeper stuff-- the inner thoughts of those around me-- what they really think and believe deep down inside... perplexes me.
Where does the need for faith come from? How do people decide what they want to put their hope in? What happened to make people so pessimistic about love?
I get confused about a lot of things. But my faith in Christ, my hope for His plans for me, and the love I share because of these promises are the only things that I'm sure of... they only certainties I possess. So it's weird for me to see people express distaste for my favorite promises.
Maybe they just don't think about it that much. They're too busy, to self concerned, or these topics have genuinely never entered their minds. Maybe I'm weird or something. Because there's just this innate force within me that makes it impossible for me to believe anything other that there's a God that loves and adores me and has beautiful, perfect plans for my life. So maybe I'm just weird in that respect.
Or, maybe, they're pessimists and "realists" that let past (bad) experiences determine their thoughts about possible future (good) experiences. Maybe it's more that them just "never thinking about that before..." maybe they've thought about trusting in Someone bigger than themselves and they simply choose to reject Him. It's certainly easier to do this sometimes. Believing is hard.
I'm a sucker for love. The real kind... the kind that never "settles." A love on fire that is constantly in bloom. And I believe that it's possible. I trust that God is big enough, strong enough, and perfect enough to make it happen.
And I get so impatient sometimes because I want so badly to have someone who understands this urge. I just want to share my hope and love and faith with someone who understands instead of physically having to remove myself from people that don't understand, and then blog about it. I have really great friends that understand sometimes, but I they're across an ocean at the moment. I also believe that I was made to share this life with a man that God has predestined and I cannot wait to start that chapter of my life.
But I will. I will wait. Because my hope is in His plan for my life, not in a human that He has for me. I believe the love He already pours out on me is endless... I'm just excited to have someone to share it with who believes the same.
This fascinated me, because I am such a hopeful optimist. My faith is so very, very important to me. It defines who I am... and Who I put my hope in is integral to my being. So to hear such statements... such claims... claims such as "love will always be interrupted by distrust" and "it's silly to hope in something divine..." they broke my heart a little bit. And the worst part is, I'm in a foreign country with almost-strangers in whom I cannot confide. I feel like I'm on an island, almost. No one really understands the hope that I have, and worse than that, they're not always pleasant to be around.
And I know that I can get grumpy sometimes too. I'm not trying to point fingers in that direction, because travel is exhausting and it can bring out the worst in people sometimes. I get that. But the deeper stuff-- the inner thoughts of those around me-- what they really think and believe deep down inside... perplexes me.
Where does the need for faith come from? How do people decide what they want to put their hope in? What happened to make people so pessimistic about love?
I get confused about a lot of things. But my faith in Christ, my hope for His plans for me, and the love I share because of these promises are the only things that I'm sure of... they only certainties I possess. So it's weird for me to see people express distaste for my favorite promises.
Maybe they just don't think about it that much. They're too busy, to self concerned, or these topics have genuinely never entered their minds. Maybe I'm weird or something. Because there's just this innate force within me that makes it impossible for me to believe anything other that there's a God that loves and adores me and has beautiful, perfect plans for my life. So maybe I'm just weird in that respect.
Or, maybe, they're pessimists and "realists" that let past (bad) experiences determine their thoughts about possible future (good) experiences. Maybe it's more that them just "never thinking about that before..." maybe they've thought about trusting in Someone bigger than themselves and they simply choose to reject Him. It's certainly easier to do this sometimes. Believing is hard.
I'm a sucker for love. The real kind... the kind that never "settles." A love on fire that is constantly in bloom. And I believe that it's possible. I trust that God is big enough, strong enough, and perfect enough to make it happen.
And I get so impatient sometimes because I want so badly to have someone who understands this urge. I just want to share my hope and love and faith with someone who understands instead of physically having to remove myself from people that don't understand, and then blog about it. I have really great friends that understand sometimes, but I they're across an ocean at the moment. I also believe that I was made to share this life with a man that God has predestined and I cannot wait to start that chapter of my life.
But I will. I will wait. Because my hope is in His plan for my life, not in a human that He has for me. I believe the love He already pours out on me is endless... I'm just excited to have someone to share it with who believes the same.
Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.
And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.
-1 Corinthians 13:8-13 NIV
Comments