...I know

There are some people in my life, that I call the 'I know' people. These kind of people look at you and know what your thinking or feeling, and sometimes they let on and other times they keep hush hush.

Recently another one of these 'I know' people stepped into my life and joined part of my journey.
That's when I began to wonder what was going on in me that meant people just 'knew' what I thought or felt before I had even really had a chance to think it or feel it. They tend to wait until I say whatever it was they already knew to affirm that after all of the strange and wonderful ways I have of getting to a point or a revelation, they had arrived at that thought, moments, days, months, or sometimes even years before.

You may have these kind of people in your life, or perhaps you are an 'I know' person, the type of patient, kind and loving human being who knows, and yet, lets people walk their journey at their own pace and realise life lessons, however painful it is to watch!

I've come to love and mildly resent the term 'I know' because of these people. I mildly resent it because of the number of times people speak into my life who knew the whole time I was gonna get there, but refused to give me direction, because it was my journey to go on! (How beautifully irritating).
Because every time I hear it, I too know that it was inevitable, it was always going to be that way, it just took my thoughts some time to catch up with my heart.
Because when I start to share my heart, I've apparently already given it away in my facial expression, behaviour, or the air around me, and I get frustrated at my lack of openness, is it really that difficult?!

I love it, because I love that people know me, I resent it because I wish they would just tell me, I hope they never stop and I never want to hear it again, but as soon as I hear it - I know that people have been looking beyond the superficial, seeing something deeper, getting to know the beat of my heart, it's trials and joys, and that comforts me.

Often our hearts simply resonate with someone else's, and words are not needed, and so the 'I know' comes from a place where other words would be empty and you are just filled with empathy and understanding. 'I know' can be some of the most comforting words to hear, they are not judging, trying to give an answer, but they reach right into your heart and sit there next to whatever is going on, without need to draw out answers beyond what we can bear.

The words 'I know' have become comforting, prophetic, irritating, and have meant drawing closer & deeper in my relationships. Including the one relationship that is often beyond words.

I am a child of a God who knows, He knows all, He is all knowing, and when he says, I know, he really does, he has been there, he has gone before us, he knows every hair on our head, he has felt our pain and carried our sorrow, he took it to the cross and overcame it in death and resurrection - He knows. He has a plan ... Even when we don't know.
So even if you don't have anyone in your life that knows you as well as you'd like, there is an all-loving all-knowing God who does, in fact he knows more about you than even you. Now that's comforting.

But like all relationships we cannot sit always in silence, never self reflecting, or figuring out our journey, waiting for others to so it for us. We have just as much responsibility to communicate where we are at to those around us who seek to support us, and love us. Communication is often hard when it's from a painful or confusing place, to friends, or to God, but it is crucial if we are to grow. We must say often, 'I think' or 'I feel' in order that we hear the 'I know'.

I thank God for 'I know' people, for their perseverance, gentleness, relentless love and patience and for the way they reflect Gods heart in my life. I pray you too would know people like this in yours.


“One of the tasks of true friendship is to listen compassionately and creatively to the hidden silences. Often secrets are not revealed in words, they lie concealed in the silence between the words or in the depth of what is unsayable between two people.”
John O'Donohue , Anam Cara: A Book of Celtic Wisdom