I have heard people in hard situations, in grief-filled moments, in procedure-pending moments say, “I don’t understand.”

And I have heard well-meaning people say to them, “Don’t question God. You need to have faith.”

I usually turn to the one in the pain.

“I don’t understand either,” I say. “I’m not sure why you need to be sitting here in this pain, waiting on this procedure, knowing that it may not work. And God’s not mad when you say you don’t understand. Not at all. That doesn’t indicate a lack of faith. It simply acknowledges you don’t understand. And you may not. But as you lay here, faithfully breathing, faithfully talking with God, faithfully trying to know what to do next, that is great faith.”

I look them in the eyes.

“It’s more faith than those of us on the outside of you have.”

Amen.