Gifts...and more

Have you received a gift that was particularly special? Maybe it was something you had been wanting for a long time, or perhaps something you had been needing and for which you had been hoping, or maybe even something you did not expect but once you had it, it seemed the perfect gift. These sorts of gifts go beyond themselves and impact more areas of your life than what might seem at first blush their purpose.

Perhaps it was someone offering you a job out of the blue that set you back on your feet.

Maybe it was someone who came along beside you during one of your darkest moments and lifted you out of that space, empowering you to move forward.

Or it could have been a note, written on a small card that arrived in the mail telling you that you hadn't been forgotten in the morass of life.

None of those appear to the greater world as anything special. None will fuel an economy, end a war, or cure a disease. But to you they might have meant more than the world itself. Because of them you are here today - not just breathing but valuable. Those are special gifts are really the ones that "keep on giving" over years and even lifetimes.

Have you ever thought of yourself as such a gift; as something larger and more expansive than just you as a person with green eyes and blonde hair? Not only as an object crafted by God that makes people laugh, or crochets baby blankets, or provides an ear from time to time. Not only as another person trying to get through life who may seem to have it more together than some others now and then. Rather, as something more expansive - a presence, a life-giving force, a wave moving through space and time impacting and enlivening those with whom you come in contact.

Can you see yourself innately "humming" as a life-giving force that expands outside of your immediate reach? A force that causes ripples across the world by impacting and causing others to vibrate.

Do you see yourself moving through life that way? What would happen to the people you meet if you did? How would your interaction with other people, with other things change? Imagine yourself as such a life-giving presence and force for others over the next week or so. Let us know what happens.

Faith or Certainty

Anne Lamott has reportedly said "Doubt is not the opposite of faith; the opposite of faith is certainty," or something like that. There are many more parts of our belief that we accept on faith than there are parts for which we can be scientifically certain. We are to be certain of our faith, but God allows us to question; to ask "Are you there?" Or perhaps we are reminded of the plea "I believe; help me in my unbelief!" 
Unfortunately, many Evangelicals think they can have the "right" answer to every question and quite frankly, if you're honest with yourself, you would come to the same conclusions they have. These conclusions cover the water front from the details of salvation to which career God has chosen for you. We are told that God answers prayer and that if would just pray correctly and enough, God would give us what we ask. This despite the facts around us that good people pray for some pretty good things and yet fail to receive them. Often, believers who have prayed that their loved one be healed of cancer find their requests unanswered and doubts arising in their minds about this God and His promises. While we may convince ourselves that we "know" intellectually that God is, and that He cares for us, it is often difficult to not doubt those things when we are left alone, cold, and hurting.
Someone it seems, who is and always has been certain about all this probably hasn't lived through many such experiences.  We can't touch God even though we might be able to feel His presence; we cannot smell or taste God even though we may savor His presence. Not being able to do these things can make absolute certainty improbable if not impossible for many believers. Their questioning and doubting about faith matters becomes part of their faith that causes them to simply jump into the arms of God even though they doubt. 
It is clear in Scripture that there are a number of things we know little about including just what salvation entails, how God lives within us and how we live in God, how Jesus and God are both distinct and the same, along with the Holy Spirit, and just how these bodies are going to be transformed and what that means.
We hold some ideas about these things even though we also doubt that we know all there is to know about them or whether they are true as we know them. Doubt in this instance isn't so much God's being or Jesus' divinity but all those minute details we find that others expect us to espouse as though we know them.
I don't know about you, but once we get past two or three of the big questions, I start wondering if we really know all we think we do. I believe the response to "help me in my unbelief" was a positive response that moved God to support the believer even in his unbelief. 
Find yourself doubting that all you've been told about the faith is completely accurate? That's OK, you wouldn't be the first. The good news is that even in your doubting God accepts you and even that your doubting can be incorporated into your life of faith.
It's OK if you aren't certain about some things; give yourself a break.
Rest in God.