An Essay submitted to NPR's "This I Believe."
I believe in God. For me He is the Christian God, and He’s active in my life. He loves me, and guides me toward my goal of living with Him, and learning in His eternal universe.
But I don’t know whether there is a god.
He has never intruded into my physical world. I have not had a vision of Him. I have not heard His voice. All I have of Him is mental. If I have prayed for His help, and my situation resolved to my liking, I have thanked Him, often with great emotion and joy all the while knowing I could be deceiving myself. One time I lost my car to a fire. For several months my wife, my three children and I prayed. God provided temporary transportation through a car loaned by a fellow church member, and God finally provided a $10,000 check in the mail—an outright gift from the Mother and Dad of dear friends. That could be God, couldn’t it? Of course, it could be just—nice!
Often, though I have searched the recesses of all my spiritual experiences for Him, He has eluded me. Then I have felt sure I have been deluding myself, although I know that any real God will often be far beyond where I could ever find Him. I ask Him for power to become a better man, father, husband, but I remain weak, temperamental, and fat. Still, I continue to invite Him to give me the insight into real change.
So why believe in Him, when He is so distant, aloof, and hard to find? Here are two of my favorite reasons:
First, if there is no god, then the human race is doomed. We already have the means of destroying, not only man, but all Earthly life. And there will be nothing wrong with that if we got here accidentally. It will be just the next random, meaningless event. It will eventually happen—unless a good God finally destroys evil, and teaches the ways of peace to us all. So I believe He will.
Second, I want to be a good person. But without God I would be foolish to live for the greater good. If there’s no God, I must live for myself, and be as happy as I can, no matter the cost to you and others. My belief in God gives me the capacity to also hope it is safe to trust you. Otherwise I must use you for my own ends. Therefore, I’d rather believe in God.
God leaves many questions unanswered so that we may freely choose Him. But He does not want us to give up our search, and some of us will find Him in wildly different places than others, or may not even recognize we have found Him. Someday, when it is safe for Him to, He will come back to our world, and teach us the ways of peace. This I believe.
I believe in God. For me He is the Christian God, and He’s active in my life. He loves me, and guides me toward my goal of living with Him, and learning in His eternal universe.
But I don’t know whether there is a god.
He has never intruded into my physical world. I have not had a vision of Him. I have not heard His voice. All I have of Him is mental. If I have prayed for His help, and my situation resolved to my liking, I have thanked Him, often with great emotion and joy all the while knowing I could be deceiving myself. One time I lost my car to a fire. For several months my wife, my three children and I prayed. God provided temporary transportation through a car loaned by a fellow church member, and God finally provided a $10,000 check in the mail—an outright gift from the Mother and Dad of dear friends. That could be God, couldn’t it? Of course, it could be just—nice!
Often, though I have searched the recesses of all my spiritual experiences for Him, He has eluded me. Then I have felt sure I have been deluding myself, although I know that any real God will often be far beyond where I could ever find Him. I ask Him for power to become a better man, father, husband, but I remain weak, temperamental, and fat. Still, I continue to invite Him to give me the insight into real change.
So why believe in Him, when He is so distant, aloof, and hard to find? Here are two of my favorite reasons:
First, if there is no god, then the human race is doomed. We already have the means of destroying, not only man, but all Earthly life. And there will be nothing wrong with that if we got here accidentally. It will be just the next random, meaningless event. It will eventually happen—unless a good God finally destroys evil, and teaches the ways of peace to us all. So I believe He will.
Second, I want to be a good person. But without God I would be foolish to live for the greater good. If there’s no God, I must live for myself, and be as happy as I can, no matter the cost to you and others. My belief in God gives me the capacity to also hope it is safe to trust you. Otherwise I must use you for my own ends. Therefore, I’d rather believe in God.
God leaves many questions unanswered so that we may freely choose Him. But He does not want us to give up our search, and some of us will find Him in wildly different places than others, or may not even recognize we have found Him. Someday, when it is safe for Him to, He will come back to our world, and teach us the ways of peace. This I believe.
posted by Al Weber at
10:39 PM
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