Faith my window, Hope my light, Love yours

You live in a room that has no lights, but one small window. That window has shutters on it that have never been opened. Darkness is all you've ever known. Muffled voices make you believe that there's something outside.

This belief that there is an outside is the beginning of faith. You work up the courage to walk to the window - you're starting to think that the voices aren't in your imagination, but they are real. You begin to think that there is an alternate reality to the one you've known and you begin to call out to the voices to see if they respond. They do. You pause at the window before tearing away the shutters. What if there is no outside? But there must be. These voices are louder and clearer and they tell you to look for yourself.

But if you open that window and there is an alternate reality, what if it's a darker reality, scarier than the one you know? You tell the voices what it's been like in your room and ask if it's any better outside - and all of them assure you that it is joyous and bright, that there is a sun, foliage, animals, so much life to see. You've never heard these words and can't imagine what they might mean, but the sound of these voices makes them sound so good you want to believe. You pull up the window, break open the shutters -- wow.Wow.

Faith is the belief that a reality exists other than the one we can see or experience with our senses or reason alone. Hope tells us that the alternate reality is ultimately good. Both propel us to action. But greater than these is a love that humbly and joyously remains a voice of that alternate reality amid doubt and despair.

None of these can occur or grow without God's word. It is the main voice that causes us to believe in an alternate reality, it is the word that teaches us that God and his world are good, it's his word that reminds us to build each other up, to love our brother despite his hypocrisy or faithlessness, and to give hope to those trapped in darkness. "You were once darkness, but now you are children of light. Walk as children of light."