Every thing happens for a reason. It's something we've all heard and still continue to hear. It sounds like something we say to people going through hard times to keep them from giving up. Maybe we tell it to ourselves for comfort. For whatever reason we say it, I believe it.

Some believe in fate, the universe, religion, or spirituality. For me, "everything happens for a reason" is God's plan. Its the things in life that God lets happen so that we can evolve to where we he wants us to be.

My Junior and part of my Senior year of high school I went through a crisis. I was questioning by belief in God. I picked up things like meditation, my moral beliefs were different from other Christian people I knew, and I thought " Well what if I don't believe in God". That idea just freaked me out even more. God was what I knew.

I came to the conclusion that I did believe in God. I just lost the faith in had in God.

I'm a the type of person that likes to solve things on my own. Other people rarely give me answers that lead to the answers to my questions.

My questions were about belief and faith. Can we still believe and not have faith? If we don't have faith does that mean we no longer believe?

I decided in a last ditch effort to Google it. Yep. I went on Google and typed in the search bar " Belief vs Faith". I found website and learned that you can believe and not have faith. The lack of faith isn't something that strips you of something being real to you but that lead me to another question.

"How can I have faith again?"

See faith is so much more than saying to yourself, " I'm having a hard time right now but God will not leave me nor forsake me." We can know that is what the Bible tells us. Its written out so we can believe it as being true. Faith isn't just belief.

Faith is having unwavering trust that things will work out. Its the feeling that comes with belief.

My questioning of faith lead me to the accomplishment or having a photo published in a book called " The Best of Photography 2016"by Photographer's Forum. In high school my photography teacher required all of us to enter a contest held by the forum. Two students from our program were published. I thought that I could do that, if I could elevate my art further.

Without that questioning of faith and that journey rediscovery, I never would have thought to even take that photo that was published.

That was my reason. I lost my faith to find it again and achieve an important goal and growth in my art.

Sometimes God sits back and lets us struggle. He lets us ask questions and wonder "why isn't he answering my prayers? Where is he? I need him". He lets us experience these moments because those moments help us grow. He needs us to struggle for us to grow. He has a plan for us with goals, accomplishments and to obtain the potential he sees in us. Those things aren't handed to us though. We work for them. We struggle for them and through those struggles we reach the next step that God set up for us.

Everything happens for a reason because there are always better things. God knows that sometimes we need to search for the light on our own. Its a journey we must take and its not always known where it will end up.

"Be strong and courageous, do not tremble at them for the lord your God is the one who goes with you. He will not leave you nor forsake you" Deuteronomy 31:6.

God does not leave us behind, sometimes he is just quiet because that is what we need. I look back on my journey and look at my photo thinking to myself " Well this is the reason."

Everything happens for a reason.