√ A STONE COLD SKEPTIC’S GUIDE TO BELIEF, KNOWING AND FAITH V2.0
My friend, Robin never was completely sure God existed, and thought “faith” was just a word, until a miracle happened!
When I met with Robin, she found it hard to contain her excitement.
She started her story with, “About a year ago, I lost a heart locket on my keychain. It was a small, purple colored heart with the words, “Believe” on it. I stopped looking for it a long time ago. The top of the heart was a little ring. It broke off, and I was kind of bummed.”
It all started when she read a book.
Robin had been sitting on the couch a few nights ago reading a book on Gratitude. It talked about surrender and committing to believe. The upshot of the book is: Believe that things are going to be OK, expect that life will be the absolute best, stay in gratitude for absolutely everything, and I mean everything, and wake up in the morning with the statement, “something amazing is going to happen today.”
Robin was not a big believer.
She thought that to believe meant to be certain: It is the foundation of faith.
Those that have faith in anything or anybody possess an unwavering certainty in what or whom they believe in.
Robin got a little stuck on that, saying, “I tend to be more of a “well, on the one hand, but then on the other,” kind of a gal.”
This deep kind of belief that the book talked about had been a little elusive to Robin.
She possessed a pervasive sense of doubt. She constantly prepared for everything that could possibly go wrong.
She has always believed in God, but had never been completely sure God existed.
She believed in herself and her abilities, but as circumstances changed or a whisper of doubt would appear, she would board the train of rampaging self doubt. Next stop, “Anxiety Station”.
She wanted to just let go and believe, but she had a strong tendency to keep both hands of doubt on the steering wheel she wasn’t able to let go very well.”
Something in the book she was reading grabbed her attention.
She read the following:
The essence of believing means “to know. “ It’s a quieter sense of conviction.
There tends to be a peace in knowing. Knowing gives your faith a place to rest in your spirit. The key is drawing your attention to what you’re grateful for which, as I mentioned, should be pretty much everything. It elevates your sense of joy and puts happiness on cruise control.
Everything, absolutely everything, is meant for good. Life is a dance through the garden of gratitude.”
As Robin was paging through this book she realized she just wasn’t on that “frequency”. It was her personality to give way to her anxieties and fears. As hard as she kept trying, she just couldn’t yield to the belief that everything is going to be OK.
Robin knew she had to let go.
So, she looked up at the ceiling, put down the book, and said to herself, “OK, God, or The Universe, or the Field of Infinite Potential, just tell me what you want me to do: I’m having a hell of a time letting go, I always have one eye awake, one foot on the shore. I never let go fully. I’m always afraid of not being even a little bit in control.”
She took a deep breath, and felt herself getting a little frustrated. She raised her voice to God once last time, and said, “Look, I’m really stuck here. JUST TELL ME WHAT YOU WANT ME TO DO!
Then it happened.
She got up to get a glass of water. (All that yelling had made her a little thirsty.) She turned to put the book back on the couch where she was sitting, and just as she was about to lay the book back on the cushion, she saw a small, purple colored figure.
“It was in the shape of a heart. It had a broken circle at the top of the heart.”
And in the middle of the heart was the word, “Believe.
I stopped, picked it up, and held it in my hand. I didn’t know where it came from. I hadn’t seen it in a year.” ~Robin
She took a deep breath: Something had just appeared from nowhere.
She put the heart in her pocket, looked back up at the ceiling, smiled and said, “OK.”
“I mean, what to do you say when you find something lying on a couch that appears out of nowhere, after you ask The Almighty for direction?”
She became a believer.
My friend smiled, and said “I get it now. I need to practice. I need to say “let go” sometimes when I want to just let things go. Or sometimes, just breathe and say, “help me, please?” And I need to meditate daily, rarely missing a day.”
She now knows that no matter what happens, things are going to be OK.
She said, “I know this to be true. No matter what, no matter how challenging.”
She then showed me her left hand. On it was a beautiful tattoo of the heart, every detail exact.
She then finished with, “Oh, yeah. I’m never going to lose that little heart of mine.
Never again.
When I see it, it reminds me that I believe.”