I began this summer at a loss for what the summer would hold. I knew what I was doing but not why or for what reason. As a part of the student ministry I'm in, called the Navigators, and this summer I chose to head up to the most grandiose family-friendly town I had not known existed until a year ago.

Pigeon Forge, TN hosts an odd number of campus Navs from all over the country each summer with a program called the Smoky Mountain Summer Training Program. We live in Hotel Pigeon Forge (lovingly nicknamed the "Hot Pig") and work at Dollywood, essentially the "Disney World of Tennessee," as one friend put it. I have had quite a difficult past two years, struggling immensely with my faith and belief in God. And so naturally, even though I was involved in FSU Navs I was uncertain about spending my summer in a place I knew nothing about.

It's the end of four days here and it feels like it's been an eternity--but in the best way possible. Faith is not simply a system of belief but rather a reliance on someone or something. If that someone or something is uncertain then how can you have faith in it? I ask myself this as I write these words, and find myself thinking that certainly, as I believe in an all-knowing God who knows no weakness, giving up my certainty for uncertainty and trusting the unknown with the God who knows all, then I have a hope that anchors me to peace.

Uncertainty sits in the pit of the stomach and sours for as long as one holds it down. Spitting out these doubts is the only way that they can be known and therefore dissolved. We often internalize our fears, anger, and doubts, and justify the way we feel with ideas about ourselves, others, the world--God, even.

Finding hope in uncertainty means confronting the dark ideas that you feel others might judge you for. Let them out, if there is a certainty that you are alive, there is a certainty that there are answers to your questions.

This doesn't mean they come easy, it takes time--I am currently processing years worth of pain and internalized issues. But I strongly believe confronting your uncertainty gives you the hope to move forward, away from your doubts, even while living within them.