Where I am today...

This will be random and only my own personal thoughts, just to forewarn you.

There are some things I know: My favorite color is marigold. I love my family. Gravity works. Chocolate tastes good to me. I know the way from Fort Wayne, Indiana to Cedarville University. If a bus hits me, it will hurt. I need God. There are things I just know.

There are things I believe: God exists. Jesus is God. God is love. He is involved in life. There is life after death.

And it amazes me how closely the two things are in my mind. And you know what, I would stake my life on what I believe over what I know. Usually what I know is based on some kind of logic, and I find that has potential to be faulty. But I still know these things to be true. What I believe on the other hand, I believe with all of me. And the aspect of faith in all of that is strong. Stronger perhaps than logic. But again, I find that what I believe has a great amount of logic in it. And what I know requires a certain amount of faith.

Where my mind has been lately though is on what I don't yet understand, the things I can't yet classify.

A friend and I have been conversing about her friend that tried to kill herself. At work today I helped a woman find her way to a shelter to get away from an abusive husband. I've been doing some research for a class and in that process came across details of children taken into the human trafficking industry. I pass beggars on my way to and from work daily. I know people who are sick. And I just have to admit that I don't understand. I can't boil these things down. Can't get my arms around them.

These things become this strand, fragile and thin. But as the things I know and the things I believe braid together with it, I find myself with thoughts, thoughts that fuel and direct and influence. I know that gravity exists, so I don't jump off cliffs (unless there's water below). I believe in God, and so all of life holds hope and purpose. I don't understand the pain of this world, but I still want to help change it.

This is where I am today.