My neighbor and I were standing outside last night watching our kids play on a big dirt pile up the street from us. There was a truck getting ready to leave and we were yelling at the kids to pay attention and watch out for the truck backing out. She turns to me and says "do you think that maybe somehow Brian is up there watching your kids and wanting you to know that the kids are going to be ok. They aren't going to get hit by the truck." I didn't really follow what she was saying. I had to have her clarify what she meant. She said, "well, I just think that Brian knows you all are going to be ok. He knows that Braden will graduate from high school and he even knows that he will get married someday." So, it was making a little more sense to me....sort of. I said, "well, I am not sure if I can go there or say that. I don't really know that God has this certain path for all of us. So much changes so quickly. And, I am not really sure that Brian really knows all of that or that he is so connected to us here on earth. Would that be heaven....to still see your loved ones...the good and bad of their life?"
Those kind of conversations are always interesting to me....we all have so many thoughts and beliefs related to God's plan, heaven, the afterlife, etc....I wonder how many of them are true...or do we just believe certain things because it helps us cope (makes us feel better)....
That conversation also draws me back to my questions about "God's plan"....I just don't know what I really believe or what is really true....it isn't something that paralyzes my faith or causes me to doubt God....rather, it reinforces the notion that God is God and I am not....I will never completely understand His ways...but I have experienced His love, comfort and peace....I guess that's enough for now....
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9 comments:
Shelly,
I love the last paragraph of this post. If God's love, comfort and peace are good enough for now - then you are in His plan by allowing Him into your life and trusting him.
This was really helpful to me this morning - I am glad you wrote it.
Barbara
* Note: This comment was actually in response to Shelly's latest blog. I don't have a blogger.com account so I couldn't post it on her page. I figured Laura could forward the thoughts! Thanks for writing. Thanks for sharing! Have a great week ladies!
"or do we just believe certain things because it helps us cope (makes us feel better)...."
I think our human brains work way too hard trying to make sense of the unexplainable. We seek out answers in an attempt to relieve the pain, but in the end we just end up with more questions. I've often wondered how much of what I believe is really just a way to hold onto hope. Without it, all is lost.
In case you didn't know it, the post from Smitty was actually from Tenille.
Interesting thoughts. Do we believe certain things to help us cope, or do we believe certain things because we believe them to be truth, and that is what helps us cope (or as Tenille put it, to give us hope)? If I believe something that isn't true then how can that help me cope. When do we move from "believing" certain things, to "knowing" certain things? Or do we ever? Jesus didn't say, "You shall believe the truth and that will set you free." He said, "You shall KNOW the truth..." How do we get to that point?
B~
Is knowing more important than believing? I can say I know a lot about who God is in reference to His nature and character, but do I actually believe those things?
Shelly, I know this isn't the intent of your post, but thought I would respond to Bruce's response. My response to your post is forming in my head and will appear later.
Good point Smitty. But when I was talking about knowing vs. believing, I wasn't necessarily referring to head knowledge - you know the doctrine, you know the scriptures, you know what we've been taught. But how can we truly believe something until we know it *experientially* and it becomes truth for us. For centuries people believed the world to be flat, or that the sun revolved around the earth, but we now know that isn't true. You "know" the nature and character of God but you won't believe in those things until they become true to you, until they somehow become real to you, until you experience His nature and character. Maybe you can't have belief without knowledge, or knowledge without belief, eh?
B~
Wow...you guys are making my head hurt. Knowing, believing, experiencing.....how does it all work together? You got me....I was just commenting on how we cope with losses by using what it sometimes referred to as "magical thinking". Grieving people are notorious for "magical thinking"....trying to connect things that don't connect or saying things that make them feel better but are not necessarily true. Strange example...someone told my daughter that her daddy died because God needed him in heaven to help him build some things. Lexi thought it was great that God needed him....obviously not the truth and not what I would have wanted that person to say...but it did make Lexi feel better (for now...until it hits her to be mad that God needed her daddy).
Anyways....you all think far deeper than I....
Of course, Shelly, you are right. Sorry to hijack your blog. I guess Smitty and I need to carry this over to our blog. :-) Sometimes I think we think too much.
B~
Whoops..didn't mean to go off in that direction. So sorry. I will write a blog about knowing and believing, then we can discuss it there.
In response to your blog, as we have talked before, would it be considered Heaven if our loved ones were always aware of what is going on in our lives? It would seem to me that if that were the case, they would hurt when we hurt and be troubled by some of the choices we make. At least, it makes me think that if my grandparents are aware of the choices I have made throughout my life, there would have been sometimes that they would not have been pleased. Is that Heaven?
I don't know how much Brian is aware of the things going on down here. Nobody really seems to be able to explain that because none of us have been there. In response to God's plan.. I have a hard time thinking that God has a specific plan for our lives, much like the connect the dots theology. If that is true, then the things of life that happen, especially horrible things, would be a part of that plan, and that doesn't hold up at all. I just don't think God works like that. How does He work then? That's the million dollar question.
Hey friends...no worries here about hi-jacking...actually, it is just cool that people read it and respond....
My intention of the post was just to ponder the fact that we tend to say things that aren't necessarily true to make each other feel better...I don't have a clue what Brian is doing in heaven...and I don't lose sleep over it....It hurts my head too much to think about it...
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