Faith means being sure of the things we hope for and knowing that something is real even if we do not see it. Hebrews 11:1
It is certainly just indescribable at best.
It was a gift my mama seemed to have that I could only wish to obtain one day. I first discovered this as a smart mouthed teenage boy. The gift she had was unmistakable. After a parental/child disagreement where I believed myself to be right about something I was probably clearly wrong about I huffed, turned to go up the stairs to my bedroom when mom fired off one more verbal shot “don’t you roll your eyes at me.”
Full disclosure, my eyes were facing the other way and all she had view of was my backside which I am surprised did not find a wooden spoon laid upon it.
As I aged out of being a smart mouth teenager into I know slightly know more than you young adult it kept happening. Mama just knew things. In the moments of fragile brokenness I would spill out my heart over some sort of crazy scene that was being played out in my life to which mama would say “I already know.”
Finally one day my curiosity was piqued to the point of needing to know how she knew when she unloaded the whole mystery to me: “Jeffrey, I just know.” Well that solves it. It is all figured out. She is some sort of mind reading, future seeing parental unit.
Until it started happening in my life. The in explainable became only explained with “I just know.” God had me in transition from state university to a small private Christian college environment. I looked and looked at school websites avoiding the suggestion of my mother. Within seconds of the Lee University site opening (it was 1998, it may have been minutes to open), I just knew and apparently so did mama. Sight unseen, I knew that is where I was transferring. My tender 20 year old mind had not words to explain it except “I just know.”
Throughout the course of my life there have been a scattering of moments when I had no other explanation for the choice I was making or the direction life was headed other than
“I just know.”
My head now decorated with wisdom and more experience has learned that the just “knowing” is that non-tangible confirming power of God’s spirit. It is the unseen person of God being seen in the choices we make. It is the assurance in the plan and direction with zero or very little evidence to tell us it is the correct option.
It seems ludicrous (and not the rapper) to make choices based on just a “feeling”. But when we journey in faith there are these moments that have no other way of being described as “just knowing”. There is something about how God operates in situations that challenges us to believe in the “just knowing” and take that step into the unknown with zero visible evidence of the outcome.
So once again, mama was right. She just seems to know or God keeps telling her before me.
