Perfect Faith (?)

OK, ordinarily I hate blog entries that wax poetic about God, but I am about to be the biggest hypocrite and post one myself. If you don't like this kind of post, feel free to skip it. In your shoes, especially if I did not agree with my religion/religious choices, I would agree with you.

Now then:

I have always said that Go dworks miracles for us every day if we only look around, find them, and grasp them. I decided I wanted to notice God's miracles for me, so I started practicing. As I've gotten more adept at it, I see them happening every day. Just today, there were two.

1. I was on my way home from school in more pain than I'd been in for a while, definitely a level of pain that caused me to collapse last time. I was limping heavily, very much favoring my right foot (which usually feels worse) and leaning on my left, although it was also in excruciating pain. I had no idea how I would find the courage to keep walking all the way home. So I started reciting psalms. I went all the way through the one that starts "The LORD is my shepherd" in Hebrew, all the way through the one that starts "I will lift up my eyes to the hills from whence comes my help" three times in Hebrew, all the way through "The LORD is my Shepherd" in English, all the way through a hymn entitled "Master of the Universe"/"אדון עולם" in Hebrew, part way through the Shema in Hebrew, and all the way through "The LORD is my Shepherd" (LOVE that psalm) in Hebrew again. By that time I was home and I could just collapse on my bed. Notice: I did not fall once on that walk, and I was feeling much better than I had expected to.

2. A new student arrived at our school tonight. I had been praying for days that I would be feeling good enough physically, and confident enough, to make a good impression on her, and I did! She really liked me. I could tell.

I still do not have perfect faith in the Orthodox Jewish sense of the word, nor do I aspire to. I do not believe the Torah came directly from God to Moses at Mount Sinai in its entirety, and I do believe that the text has changed slightly over time. I do not necessarily believe the stories in the Torah are historically accurate, although that does not necessarily mean they are not ture on a deeper, emotional level. Although followin gJewish law is easily one of my top five priorities, it is not the top one all the time.

But regardless of all that...

I am God's, and God is mine, and we walk hand in hand on this journey. I know that I am on the path God wants for me and He will hold my hand and baby me when I need it every step of the way.

This is my truth. It does not have to be yours, but for myself, I know this to be true.