I have this little habit… a tick, if you will… a little ‘thing’ that I do – well, say – that I am mostly unaware that I am doing. “Okay…” I murmur it over and over, “Okay… okay…” It’s as if, after finishing something, I am mentally checking it off my To Do List (which – if you know me at all… you know that I’m a Day Planner girl and I have a love for bossy lists of things to do!)
I say it while cooking dinner, following a recipe…
I say it when painting, or creating a scrapbook page…
I say it when I am getting ready in the mornings… (waiting for the glorious beep of the coffeemaker!)
I say it… and mostly I believe it… but it is so reassuring to hear the words… to feel a sense of accomplishment, even just a slight bit of forward motion.
And I believe from that little habit, came this little ritual:
“Everything is gonna be okay!”
This is a mantra.. something that is often said to myself in my head, or slipped out under breath as an assurance… It is thought of or spoken, sometimes boldly declared, both in times when I KNOW it to be true… and in times when I actually honestly BELIEVE it to be true!
I am a faith girl at heart! I have shared about how I was raised with Worry, Fear, and Doubt. They were familiar friends of mine and it took a lot of work on God’s part and mine to rid the neighborhood of them and kick them out for good. God has changed my natural bent and my fall back now is normally one of faith and life… instead of fear and death.
But I was chatting with a girlfriend over coffee the other day and we were encouraging one another in normal every day life things, when this slipped out:
“We can know things all of the time, but only believe them some of the time!”
Wait… what?
Yeah… can anyone else say, “Ouch!”
Because so often I can believe what I know to be true for YOU… but it’s when I am trying to believe it for me that I can get caught in the space in between knowing and believing!
Because even though we KNOW Truth… we still have the freedom of choice to decide if we will BELIEVE (and live) Truth out loud.
Same is true for Grace… Oh – I have Grace for you… but it’s when it is needed for me to extend Grace inward; that can get tricky and hard to come by!
This is why we NEED the Body… we need each other desperately to remind us that we are just knowing sometimes… when we really need to be believing!
We need each other to pray… for I can believe for your healing… but mine gets harder because my faith can get cloudy with the seeming reality of my pain or discomfort…
I was offering prayer to another friend and I told her what my own heart was hoping for… you see, I was encouraging her in her circumstance, but I was really preaching a message that I really needed to hear!
I told her I was believing that God is at work beneath the surface and that breakthrough IS happening – we just haven’t seen the ripple effect yet! I reminded her, and myself, that we are not in this alone and THAT, my friends, is the grace and power of the Body! Our arms get weary in the battle. We all need someone(s) to come along side us and help hold up our arms from time to time!
Sometimes it’s not so much because we want to give up – or even because our arms get heavy… it’s just that knowing and feeling that someone is in it with you… standing beside you… feeling the warmth of another, facing in the same direction, believing for the same thing… it’s that that brings comfort and renewed hope for the victory ahead!
A different voice that can whisper what your heart is faintly beating away at…
“He’s got this! Everything is gonna be okay!”
So, ALL of the time, I know this is true! For God works all things together for good for those who are called according to His purpose. I know that in the big picture, He’s got me and all that concerns me in the palm of His hand. But I don’t always FEEL like that is true! No – often times, even still, I can be easily duped into falling for the lies of the enemy instead of believing in the Truth that I know!
So – when you are feeling weak-kneed and shaky at best… when you find yourself not so certain of what you know OR believe… when the soundtrack of your life is on replay and the narrator is snarky and mean… can I encourage you to be bold, even though you don’t feel it?
Be brave, instead of hiding…
May I ask you to lean IN, rather than bail out…
Just find one person… and (gasp) ask for help!
Ask for prayer. It is our honor to stand side by side… as One Body, and hold each other up! Ask me! I would love to pray with you!
Speak Life. Be Love. Shine On.
~Karrilee~
“You were all called to travel on the same road and in the same direction, so stay together, both outwardly and inwardly. You have one Master, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who rules over all, works through all, and is present in all. Everything you are and think and do is permeated with Oneness.”
(Eph 4:4-6 The Message)
