In my previous post (Peter’s Challenge: 8 Weeks to Love), I talked about my “eight weeks to love” plan, and my first step was faith, the most tough and most foundational step. After about two weeks of deliberation, I finally grabbed a faint hold of my idea of faith. Since faith is the foundation for the attributes to follow, the time is absolutely necessary.

When I focused on faith the past couple weeks, I realized it requires belief and trust in something or someone. I realized there are some beliefs that can only be held onto by faith. Sometimes, you must have definite knowledge of faith, knowing that there is no absolute truth about an idea but at the same time knowing that is can must and only be accepted by faith, infallibly holding an indefinite ideology. The expression of this belief requires trusting God with the rough spots, trusting that God is on my team and will work things out for the better. There are so many aspects of God that I don’t comprehend, but one definite concept is that I am loved and cared for by God. God designed us to live in community and work with one another, and my role is to participate as a unique piece in God’s Creation. This participation requires the output of some of my greatest struggles, in the event that those form much of my being and much of my story. But because of past events, I have trust issues that have allowed me to build up some of the greatest walls against people. So part of I’m discovering that part of the expression of my faith is that I need to allow myself to be vulnerable and loved unconditionally by God and others. The Holy Spirit is making a better story for me, and I must forfeit my story.

Basically, I have been discovering that faith is optimism, a hope for something uncertain, holding onto the hope that things will work out, and knowing that regardless I can trust that God will provide and work things out for the better. I had been trying so long to prove to myself that some things were absolutely true, but that completely defeats the purpose of faith. Sometimes you just gotta hold on tight and see how things roll out.

PS. I had a conversation with the author of the Shack back in August that plays a huge role in some beliefs that I realized I can only hold onto by faith, click here to read it.