hope & faith. and truth.

I found myself saying something the other day and as I was saying it, I couldn’t believe the words that were coming out of my mouth.  Does that ever happen to you?  I usually call it verbal diarrhea.  This time was different though.  While I couldn’t believe the words coming out of my mouth, I also recognized them to be true.

I was talking with some friends about the adoption and they were asking questions about the possibilities of the birth mother/parents changing their mind/s and I said:

“It’s possible.  I am hopeful that we’ve already had all of the bumps along the road to having a baby that we’re going to have, but there is no guarantee.  I know though that whatever happens, it will be our story and God is going to use it.”

It doesn’t seem like anything revolutionary to type, but it does seem revolutionary to me, to real believe those words in my heart.  Those are words of faith that I didn’t even know I possessed, and that faith is one for which I know I can’t take all the credit.

For the last two years, I’ve been struggling with the question of hope v. faith.  Are they the same thing?  Which ones comes first?  Where does one start and the other pick up; or are they mutually exclusive?

I still don’t have the answers about hope and faith, and I’m not sure that I will on this side of eternity, but I feel like the Holy Spirit is doing His work in me through my asking the questions.