The holidays are now over. Everyone is getting back into their routines, or trying out their New Year’s resolutions. Life keeps charging on. Yet BELIEVE has been following me, and jumping out at me everywhere lately.
I saw it recently on a piece of wall art in the beach house my family had our reunion in. I saw it in craft store. I read it in a book, and then in a Bible promise. I heard it in a movie. Believe, believe, believe. I suddenly see it popping out everywhere, like the hidden colors of a sunset that suddenly emerge when the light changes.
And I kinda am enjoying it! It’s like this constant whisper of that Christmas afternoon epiphany that keeps me focused on what it truly means to move beyond myself. It’s like BELIEVE has chosen me as it’s New Year’s Resolution. It will be fun to see how this concept, BELIEVE, continues to translate itself into my life. And all in the honor of that mysterious man in the Starbucks coffee shop in San Francisco.
With all this surrounding me, I’ve come to realize a few additional things: Since BELIEVE is in fact a verb, it requires action – yet action must be birthed from a place of inspiration, in order for it to be new and fresh and be able to move forward. It must come from a Source greater than just me, cuz me-ness only goes so far. To be truly inspired means to be moved by a Force outside of myself, which then, in turn, propels myself to DO something, anything. It propels me to MOVE.
This Something outside of me, inspires me to an action beyond just mere thoughts, and I respond to that Inspiration with action, because I know there is something greater than just my skin and bones fueling it. And when I merge with that Inspiration, when I flesh out what that source inspires me to do, greatness takes place. Joining with a Source greater than myself, I can make a mere idea, even though it seems impossible, become a reality. This is what BELIEVE is. But I can only keep this growing as I rely on a Higher Power that is the Source of the inspiration. Let me explain more.
After that Christmas afternoon of trying to find that man from Starbucks, I still felt a tiny bit sad. Yes, we had fed another man in his honor; yes, we had given out Christmas into the tenderloin that morning; yes, I was seeing the world with new eyes…but I still felt inadequate. I still felt like I had missed that one human soul who was still out there. We had been planning to stop by Grace Cathedral on the way out-of-town, and now I was really looking forward to it. Somehow the idea of sitting in that beautiful cave-of-a-building sounded perfect just about now.
So we went in. We walked around the place, the smell of incense lingering in the air. The afternoon light from outside cascaded through the stain glass windows. It was peaceful. After walking around, I sat down in one of the pews and just let the day’s events cascade over my soul. And I began to pray for those faces I had seen that morning: the lonely eyes, the hopeful smiles, the broken lives. I thought of the people who had missed the food lines, or the children who hadn’t got a present. I prayed for the lonely wealthy ones who are caught in the trap of the day-in-day-out; I thought of the Starbucks man out there wandering the streets, and all the others like him, getting shooed away; I thought of all of us – united by our humanity, common in our need for love. As I thought about all those faces, and as I prayed for them, for us, the bell tower rung 4 times, telling us the afternoon time.
It was a beautiful moment. Because in that moment, as the bell rung out its low bellows, I realized again that it doesn’t stop with me. All the weight and pain and failure could be passed onto a Greater Source and left in greater hands. The hands that not only speak of love, but are Love. And that reality of putting us all back into a Higher Being’s care gives me the fortitude to keep going and going and going. Cuz I know my inadequacies – if the buck stops with me, precious human souls will always slip through the cracks. If I am all there is, I will be overcome with desperation of the pain we all encounter. But after I’ve lived compassion to others, when my back is tired and my emotions are raw, I can place all of it back into the Mighty Arms of Love – the arms of God. And that is the Inspiration that keeps BELIEVE a living reality.
So in the moments I feel inadequate, lacking, or like my intentions and actions are just tiny drops in a huge ocean of need, I can keep going knowing that I have a Source behind me that is greater than just me. And so this verb, BELIEVE, always begins and ends, and endures with God’s consistency of never-ending LOVE.
Awakenings 
This is so beautiful to me. I see a picture in these words, an image of God, the Source, united with us in Believe…like that joining is in the verb. As if Believe is a dimension He invites us to…a new way of motion that He is always in and we can join in.
I love what you said about how you can only keep this going as you rely on His power. That is powerful. Modern Christianity as a religion has been trying to serve “LIKE” Jesus…you seem to understand a way of loving WITH Jesus. Your depth of insight is a beautiful gift to us. Thank you for this 3 part amazing post!