Convicted

Conviction. I am faithfully convicted in my beliefs.  The word faith is mystical and magical and when someone has "it", it is a curiosity.  My faith is hard won, it isn't nor has it ever been a simple swallowing whole of a philosophy or religion.  I have used deductive reasoning, read for and against, engaged in painful soul searching, fact finding and truth detecting. I have investigated a mountain of beliefs and sifted and sorted through them looking for confirmation, conclusion, correlation, connection, all in the hopes that it would make perfect sense and I could at last breath a sigh of relief, an ahhhhhh feeling that I sought and found answers that I can live and sleep with.  I know I am designed to have beliefs make sense, that it is important for me to be well informed, knowledgeable, so that if I am asked to share what I believe it holds water and isn't just my opinion, my perspective, my limited point of view.  While being educated and knowledgeable are essential, conviction is nothing without the stardust of faith, sprinkled liberally on those that ask "give me faith, forgive my unbelief". This is where facts and knowing meet, mix, mingle and I lay claim to my abiding faith in my Abba Father, the God I know is there but that I cannot see.