Believing or not

in my own words

Published on July 19, 2006 By foreverserenity In Misc

I’ve been racking my brains trying to find a way to explain to some of you who have asked “what is faith” or wondered “who is God” or even asks the question “why should I believe?”

I’ve prayed on it asking God to help me to explain to you that which you seek. I’m not a theologian or a devout scholar of religion who will be able to come up with fancy answers and quotes from the bible, chapter and verse. I can’t quote anything off hand, I would have to look it up to tell you what I’m talking about. I don’t hold those chapters and verses from the bible in memory and able to repeat them verbatim. No, I can only speak from my heart, telling you of my experiences about why I believe.

I’ve mentioned before that I’ve come by my beliefs because of my parents who although they were not devout Christians, were believers and made sure their children attended church and lived as good a life as they could. They were well-liked by many because of their honesty and how much they cared for others. And so my siblings and I continued in their footsteps, living by God’s grace as believers of his words.

My faith was a source of strength since my childhood and has grown even stronger into adulthood. I’ve had different experiences throughout my life, some that would be difficult to explain, some I’ve just accepted because my faith makes me who I am and I find comfort in that.

One such experience happened when I was a child, I was doing my chores around the family home and heard footsteps behind me, when I turned around I saw that it was my father. I greeted him and went back to my work. I didn’t hear him leave, and got up to see where he had gone, and asked my mom “where did daddy go so fast?” She told me my dad had gone on a business trip since very early that morning. I found that impossible because I saw him with my own eyes, he was real, he was there.

I felt the urge to pray for him and so I went to a quiet space and I did that. When he came home that night, he told us that he had a very close call that morning, and almost had a very bad accident, that it was a miracle they weren’t seriously hurt. I thank God he wasn’t.

Another experience, I came close to death, (my first experience – there was one other) and I won’t go into details because how it happened and why are still beyond me, but through out the entire experience I was alert and aware of everything that was going on around me. I saw the fear in my parents and my siblings but inside I was very calm. While they were busy rushing me to get care, I kept repeating to myself over and over Psalms 27, I felt the need to do this. I’m glad that I survived that experience. When I go over it in my mind, because it’s something that I can’t forget, I don’t have an explanation of how what I experienced happened.

There have been times when I’ve been in deep sleep and then get up and begin praying for someone, usually a family member or friend. Sometimes I would even be sleeping and wake myself up praying and chanting. When I contact the person who I prayed for the next day they would tell me that they had experienced some form of crisis, sometimes that crisis was life threatening.

Just because I had these experiences doesn’t make me special, I am just grateful that I can be of use in this manner. These and other experiences have helped to strengthen my faith.

While all that I’ve relayed might seem to be that my faith comes from being in crisis, not at all. This is where it gets difficult for me to explain to you in a way to make you understand.

I have never questioned what I believed, at all, until recently when I had a crisis and gave God an ultimatum because I thought that I was at my wits end. Because I felt he was ignoring me the way many of you feel that he does. It’s not that he’s ignoring you or doesn’t see you or hear you; how else would you be alive if that was the case? How else would you be able to come through an experience that you didn’t think you could bare? He is there, walking with you, sometimes carrying you.

When two people are friends, one a Christian the other a non-believer, it would be impossible to think that the subject of beliefs and faith will not come up. It will, simply because life happens and sometimes people will have questions and experience things differently and the one who is a Christian will try to comfort the other in the only way they know how, by going to her/his faith.

The friend being a good friend will listen, not out of anger, but with respect to let the other person have their say. The friend might even find comfort in hearing the words that they are hearing. This might lead to questions and then a discussion can ensue. Both leave with some enlightenment. Does that mean that the Christian friend did the wrong thing? Does that mean that the non believer should feel violated? I as a believer would think not. You as a non believer might say yes. But in what way did the friend violate the other? I think it very much has to do with what that non-believer’s objections are. How strongly they dislike the thought or existence of God.

This has happened to me a number of times, and the friend who is a non-believer, accepted my ‘talk’ with an open heart. They leave with a smile and a feeling of comfort because they were able to look at ‘the situation’ in another light. Thus enters enlightenment. The other person was always reciprocal to hearing what I had to say. So I guess you would have to be reciprocal to hearing, seeing to believing.

The thing that always get me when a person asks if God is real, I always wonder if they do not see life all around them.

There are some believers who do go too far and will violate another person’s space with too much ‘preaching’ this is not the way to go about telling of the glory of God’s love. But perhaps that’s the only way they know how.

Most times I think it has to do with the personality of that person, how they are in life and how they come across. Perhaps they don’t even know that they are perceived at in this way. And all it would take is a nudge from the person on the receiving end to say, “Listen, I have something to say”, and begin a conversation, not in a hostile manner but in a manner that will let them have a conversation that might enlighten them both.

I’m sorry this blog is so long, that happens when I have a lot to say. If you’re read to the end of this writing, I thank you for doing so. I do hope that what I was trying to say, was understood. Sometimes I get lost in what I’m trying to say and weeding out the confusion can be a task for the reader!LOL!

There are a couple of blogs I did some time ago, so I’m going to dig them up again, and link for you to read. the first one I didn't write, but I found it so comforting and it gave me a feeling of great joy. I hope you will feel it too.

Link

And these:

Link

Link

Comments

Tova7

on Jul 19, 2006

Thanks for sharing all that forever.

You have some interesting things happen in your life!

foreverserenity

on Jul 20, 2006

Thanks Tova. Thank you also for reading all this! Yeah, now that I go back to look on some of the things that happened, they certainly were!

Shovelheat

on Jul 20, 2006

All you have to do, FS, is just keep being who you are. Example is the best teacher, you know.

foreverserenity

on Jul 21, 2006

All you have to do, FS, is just keep being who you are. Example is the best teacher, you know.

Thanks Joe. Yes, example is the best teacher.

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