Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward parts: and in the hidden part thou shalt make me to know wisdom – Psalm 51:6
“Perhaps this is too dark a message to share on Easter morning.” This was the beginning of a conversation from Savannah Guthrie, co-host of NBC’s TODAY, about her faith amid the ongoing search for her mother on Easter Sunday. “These moments of deep disappointment with God, the feeling of utter abandonment…It’s the darkness that makes this morning’s light so magnificent, so blindingly beautiful. It’s all, the brighter because it is so desperately needed…When we celebrate today, this is what we celebrate. And I celebrate too. I still believe. And so, I say with conviction, happy Easter.”
Savannah’s candid bravery highlights my personal discovery that faith isn’t the absence of doubts, questions, and periods of disappointment and anger with God. Faith is the unwillingness to stop trusting God despite unknowns and harsh realities. It’s demonstrating the expression: “when the rubber meets the road” by choosing to continue a path that seems uncertain and at times unguided. And it’s the recognition that retreating would create an unbearable loss.
Are you amid a rough patch or still dealing with past pains? Admitting how you feel, full disclosure, doesn’t lessen you as a Christian. Faith includes the assurance of knowing that God seeks “truth in the inward parts,” and that His love isn’t conditioned by transparency, no matter how revealing.