I believe

"Do you believe what you believe is really real?"

The past few weeks the word believe has been popping up in expected and unexpected places... Dictionary.com gives these definitions of believe: to have confidence in the truth, the existence, or the reliability of something, although without absolute proof that one is right in doing so: Only if one believes in something can one act purposefully. Or a. to be persuaded of the truth or existence of. b. to have faith in the reliability, honesty, benevolence, etc.

It's interesting a patient stated to me: I believe. He talked about how when it comes down to the line on faith and what he believes it's that he just believes in God. There are so many complex natures and things that everyone talks about and how we have all of this theological jargon that we talk about. However, when it comes right to the line: What matters most is that we believe.

Our human nature brings us to wonder about so many things and we doubt that we are good enough, do we have what it takes? Are we right? However, when we believe what we believe is really real, sometimes the answers and the supernatural intercedes for the inadequacies of the here and now. It's kind of convicting because it's rare that we're really forced to live by faith. Matthew 6:25-27 states: "Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?

In our culture currently, we are not forced to wonder where our food comes from and so often we just rely on our own strength or it is given to us. However, when we are forced to put it in God's hands we typically resist and try to take it into our own hands. As I work with patients every day I notice that when people cannot control their health they quickly try to control other circumstances that they can. For instance: one patient used to tell her roommates what to do and would yell at them for doing things that bothered her. Not because she was angry at them- but because she had lost the control of having her life in her hands, and now, she was looking around trying to control her outside circumstances. We worry about what tomorrow brings, or the upcoming years- instead of looking to what we have right now and what that is.

What does christian life look like when we believe what we believe is really real? Would we give a little more to others trusting God will provide for us if we ever don't have enough? Sometimes I feel like we live with surplus with a fear that we will not have enough at some point... I don't know, it still makes me wonder, what about those who don't have enough right now?


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