Granny Knot Faith

One of my views on how to live a life of faith is the example of what I would call a granny knot.  A granny knot is a poorly tied knot usually done in haste that ends up being very difficult to untie. 
Now, there are three truths to untie the Granny knot:

1. You have to believe that you can untie the knot.  If you don’t start there you’ll give up pretty quickly. 
2. When untying a granny knot you must go step by step.  If one gets too far ahead of themselves they lose where they are at and you can create a bigger mess than you started with.
3. You must go slow and steady.  If you go too fast or pull too hard you risk making the knot tighter or completely breaking the string. 

Now there are short cuts, tricks, and tools that one may use to undo the knot, but usually those end up either taking more time, creating a bigger mess, or leaving you with shorter string because you just chose to cut it instead of working through it.  So, on a fundamental level the only way to work through granny knots is to follow the three rules. 

This is like faith and life.  First, you’re not going to go anywhere in your faith if you do not start with a basic belief in God. It may take time to get there, but without that starting point nothing else will fully make sense and you will get frustrated and quit. This belief surpasses every issue that could arise and in the end you will experience God’s Grace.

Secondly, you need to live your life; don’t get too far ahead, don’t dwell in the past, but live. At times, you get to places that are harder than others and you have to be more vigilant and sometimes you can fly through because everything is working “as it should.” 

Thirdly, you need to let things “play out.” When we try to force situations, bad things can and often do happen. I remember many years ago when I taught beginners swimming how many kids were terrified of the water because of the way they were forced to learn how to swim. Many times, with those who were timid, letting them move closer on their own, taking the time on land made them more comfortable in the water. In life and our struggles with faith, giving ourselves the grace that we need to work through a difficult time, not forcing things to be good right now but letting them “play out” can help us to see things much clearer and end up working out much better. Especially since a bad time may give a glimpse into something much deeper.

In my life, this has played out through various struggles in my life. Through the medical anxieties of my youth to the many struggles of life, the times where I give myself the grace and patience I have often seen things workout, as they ought. This is not about being passive; it is about being in the moment and working through the series, like the knot where you may have to work the strings back and forth to loosen the string, in life you may need to experiment to find what works. However, in time, if you have faith, patience and continue to move forward, eventually you get through it.

Maybe the best way to sum all of this up is “have faith in God, have faith in yourself, because God has faith in you.”