Question posed by Chaplain Mike
It is a rare conversation that cuts right to the heart of the matter. It happened to me the other day.
I was visiting a terminally ill patient who was actively dying. Her granddaughter had come to see her, and as I entered the room I observed her talking with the doctor, upset at the sight of her grandma dying, wiping away tears, asking anguished questions. The doctor departed and I introduced myself. In return, she briefly told me her story—Her father had committed suicide over a decade ago, when she was a teenager. Shortly after that, her grandmother had a stroke and was placed in a nursing home. That was the last time the young woman had seen her. Today that changed. After more than ten years, she had driven several hours to visit and finally face all the emotions, now rising up and choking her like fine dust from the place she had tamped them down for so long.
She asked me a little more about myself, and my ministry. Then, these words: “I don’t mean to offend you, but may I ask you a question?”
“Sure,” I said.
Looking me directly in the eyes, she asked the most basic question, “Why do you believe in God?”
In today’s Open Mic, I am asking you to put yourself in my shoes at that moment.
What will your answer be?
Here are the rules:
- Realize this: you only have a short space of time. Three or four sentences at the most. One paragraph. No time to delineate the classic proofs for the existence of God.
- Keep the situation in mind. ‘Nuff said.
- You are welcome to add one additional paragraph explaining to the rest of us why you answered as you did.
- If you are a person who does not believe in God, you have one paragraph to tell us how you might try to bring comfort to this young woman, and then a second to explain your reasoning.
- You are welcome to reply to other posts, but my preference is that you give an answer first before responding to your fellow participants. (I only state it that way because I won’t be monitoring the discussion every single second. I’d appreciate adherence to my wishes, OK?) I also ask that you keep your replies to other posts brief, a paragraph or two. We’re working on being concise here. It’s a valuable asset in many conversations.
Got it? This should be fun. Every once in awhile, it’s good to go back and think about the basics.
The Internet Monk Archives 
Pat,
I love this!
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it is quite difficult to recover from Alcohol Abuse because alcohol is also very addictive just like Cigarettes and drugs..’~
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Because I tried very hard not to believe in him, and found that I couldn’t.
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I appreciate the tone of these comments. I have been fascinated by religion for most of my adult life: I would rather listen to Catholic radio than Air America (well, back when), most of the time. I listen to speakers on apologia, and try to parse the underlying world-view that makes such feelings even possible. I haven’t figured it out.
It’s not for lack of trying. My own examination since 13 has been something more than casual, and includes conversations with some great correspondents and believers. One said that the holy spirit is stalking me and one day I would see the light. We shall see.
Overall, though, there is this: I am classically trained in Greek and Latin (although my Master of Landscape Architecture gave me a vocation). I do have some acquaintance with the faith of those days, and when I look at modern christianity, I wonder: how is this different?
Indeed. And how is it that so many religions claim to be the One True Faith? It’s an accident of birth that I wasn’t born in Egypt or wherever, and if I had been, I’d be a muslim.
These two points, taken together, are mighty strong.
On the issue of the breadth of creation: I also have a deep and current curiosity of cosmology and I try to follow it as best I can. When I confront the magnitude of the universe- something not well understood by those not really studying modern thinking- I am forced to ask my self: “where the hell AM I?’ What is this place? Is it something inside of something? are there other places? why am I in this particular place?
Whew. Gets me tired. And you know what else? It makes me feel powerful.
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*not (instead of ‘njot’)
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What, then, is grace? It only works when an individual abandons all hope & experiences the embrace of something they cannot generate themselves.
So, you think everyone on the planet must go through proverbial Hell to receive grace? I don’t remember that verse.
In this case, the selfishness of woman about to experience loss is cursing God because this loss is not convenient for her. God has refused to intervene at her beck and call. That’s not God’s job to be our pool boy.
Honestly, sometimes that’s true, and sometimes it’s just a question born out of fear, njot cursing God. Since I don’t know this woman, I don’t know which is the case.
Frankly, pastoral ministry today has been over run by 19th century Romanticism & Stewart Smalley seems almost the archetype of the kind of compassion ministry is supposed to embody.
Where’s that from? (Serious question.)
But, in the end, death is there because of us. It’s our fault.
So, we control nothing, but death is our fault?
That said, Ursinus hit on a valid point in the Heidelberg Catechism (Q & A 42) that death puts an end to our sinning.
So, death is a blessing?
It seems all too frequently we simply lose our nerve to speak truth, the truth we know in our hearts & confirmed by the Holy Spirit in Scripture. Our sinful self looks at the theodicy and we impose on God what we believe is compassionate (hath God said?
Hum. So, fear is a sin?
I have a strange feeling you’re going after the justice of God, but you’ll get nowhere if you don’t realize Justice and Mercy must be together, or neither are present.
The fruit did look pleasing to the eye) rather than staying obedient to the discipline of the Church as Scripture circumscribes truth.
Um, mixing metaphors, I think. “If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love…if I have the wisdom to unlock all mysteries…if I give my body to be burned, but have not love, I am a resounding gong, a blaring trumpet; I am nothing, and I gain nothing” (Kaci Paraphrase Ed).
What I think Scripture said was that everything must be seasoned with grace, including truth.
You think my response was snippy?
Perhaps inappropriate. I’ll admit I have a few friends I could say “get over it” to, or they could say it to me. But we have the relationship to do that.
You ought to know how John 6 opened and closed. Or Jesus saying to the woman how it wasn’t right to take childrens’ bread and toss it to dogs (Mk 7:27)? I can’t imagine many parish pastors having the gonads to say that to a seeker or inquirer. They would go out of their way to render whatever assistance immediately w/out question. Or does Jesus get a pass for snippiness because, well, he is the 2nd Person of the Trinity Incarnate?
It’s my understanding that Jesus, being the all-knowing God, meets us where we are. The woman was completely undeterred. It’s not actually recorded that she was personally offended. But that’s another discussion.
I will say this: Try trashing your church and run people off with your belt, and let me know how it goes. If it works out for you, please tell me, and I’ll relent on my theory that not everything Jesus did is to be done by us (such as flipping tables).
The redemption accomplished and applied by Christ was not specifically about *us* but for the *Kingdom*.
Huh. So, was the Crucifixion for us, or for the Kingdom?
Yeah, I’m quite Augustinian and especially of Augustine’s superb pupil, Calvin, and Kuyper & Geerhardus Vos.
Noticed.
Maybe it was you who was a bit snippy before you thought my response to your question through.
Text doesn’t translate well. I’m not sure how many ways there are to read “get over it.”
/tangent.
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I kinda feel that way about the bickering on here.
Per your comment: I’ve been a Christian almost as long as I can remember, and that answer would frustrate me, too. But faith isn’t blind, to be honest. Faith is built on a trust that what has been true in the past will continue to be true in the future. I have faith the chair I’m in will hold because it’s held me before. *shrug*
As for the Trinity – Um….Honestly, the simple answer is God isn’t human, and therefore isn’t bound to the same constraints humans are. If he can be everywhere at once; it stands to reason he can be the Three-and-One as well. At any rate, there are Christians who don’t accept the doctrine because it’s not expressly stated in Scripture (it’s more implied than spelled out in black & white). It’s a doctrine that’s got many interpretations, and most of them probably wind up being variations of the same thing. I definitely wouldn’t approach a new believer or a non-believer and start off with that one.
As for heaven and hell, curiously, how so?
Anyway, I know that’s a bit off-topic.
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It’s not exactly chaotic, this universe in which we live. As to hope: you have control over your self, a very empowering notion.
Are you saying that without God there is no hope, and so since there must be hope, therefore there is a God?
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Patrick,
I never expected to encounter sarcasm here, and so will leave it at that.
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A well-put question. Answer: I don’t know! There are so many issues in that question that peeling may be beyond the scope as you have defined it.
When I said that faith for the sake of comfort has an odd ring to it, certainly I don’t misunderstand the needs of the human heart, particularly in times of deep stress or grief or death. There is this: at exactly those times, those excruciating times, when the breast is the heaviest, what do we make of offering false hope? To make the respondent feel better?Nothing wrong with this, but it is a poor basis for faith.
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Not everything, true; but the core beliefs: that Jesus died for our sins, that he was resurrected, and then passed to heaven- this is the gate through which all believers must pass.
As to historicity, certainly I accept the historical Jesus. More to the point of the original question was faith in God in a more general way, though: faith is a leap that I cannot make.
On the issue of comfort: we take comfort in our lives and families. There is nothing more.
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….Make Matthew STOP looking at me!!!!
/whine
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In the end, I cannot know if there is a god, not until I die. I do know, however, that I am part of something larger, truly wonderful. We get a very brief moment in this universe, to experience it all, good and bad, to try to understand it and ourselves. In the end, horrible things happen to many of us, but that does not stop the wonder of the universe, the wonder of being able to see, hear, feel, taste and smell. Despite the way she is now, your grandmother had a chance to do all that, and she had a chance to see her wonderful granddaughter who cares so much for her.
(The attempt is to blend a bit of Cosmos with a bit of Our Town in there. Not quite sure how successful I was.)
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:0
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I am sometimes called to break up spats on the playground.
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thread deleted why?
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Mike, I never see Jesus treating hurting people as you suggest we should. That’s my standard.
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“I believe because God, through His gift of grace to me, enabled me to believe. ”
Amen!
“But by His doing you are in Christ Jesus”…………….1 Corinthians 1:30
Simple – He did it.
As the men of old used to preach; “Salvation is from the LORD, nobody else!”
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Curious and curiouser, the little girl said,
these upsides and downsides to which we all head:
My insides are outside and the plus side the nil side
And more oft than not my heart knows dread.
Once and twice and thrice again,
quoth the raven inside,
the ravens all were hungry
and on each other fed…
Curious and curiouser,
the crow-haired girl did call,
when mothers eat their children
blood and bones and all.
The little girl so hungry
with raven’s wings for hair
Followed along so softly
The cat stayed in the bag.
I didn’t want to think aloud,
the raven girl did speak,
but all have claimed well-washed skin
when the stains are on their hands.
The little one spoke thusly,
then climbed on counter top;
nowhere close to blackbirds’ score
baked within a pie.
The raven wing stilled, there before the king;
would the four and twenty blackbirds
then begin to sing?
Can the curious raven girl
Be given another wing?
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I stand corrected!
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In case you hadn’t noticed, this response was to Mike’s response to me.
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Pelagianism. 19th-century Romanticism. Heidelberg Catechism. Theodicy. Kuyper & Geerhardus Vos.
Is that what you’d say to her? And then tell her “Get over yourself”?
Why don’t you just pass her a loaded pistol?
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What, then, is grace? It only works when an individual abandons all hope & experiences the embrace of something they cannot generate themselves. It’s that “in spite of” problem that makes grace difficult to accept because we’re all naturally Pelagians. We want to define how we approach God, we want to wrap God around our experience. In this case, the selfishness of woman about to experience loss is cursing God because this loss is not convenient for her. God has refused to intervene at her beck and call. That’s not God’s job to be our pool boy. Frankly, pastoral ministry today has been over run by 19th century Romanticism & Stewart Smalley seems almost the archetype of the kind of compassion ministry is supposed to embody. But, in the end, death is there because of us. It’s our fault. That said, Ursinus hit on a valid point in the Heidelberg Catechism (Q & A 42) that death puts an end to our sinning. It seems all too frequently we simply lose our nerve to speak truth, the truth we know in our hearts & confirmed by the Holy Spirit in Scripture. Our sinful self looks at the theodicy and we impose on God what we believe is compassionate (hath God said? The fruit did look pleasing to the eye) rather than staying obedient to the discipline of the Church as Scripture circumscribes truth. You think my response was snippy? You ought to know how John 6 opened and closed. Or Jesus saying to the woman how it wasn’t right to take childrens’ bread and toss it to dogs (Mk 7:27)? I can’t imagine many parish pastors having the gonads to say that to a seeker or inquirer. They would go out of their way to render whatever assistance immediately w/out question. Or does Jesus get a pass for snippiness because, well, he is the 2nd Person of the Trinity Incarnate? The redemption accomplished and applied by Christ was not specifically about *us* but for the *Kingdom*. Yeah, I’m quite Augustinian and especially of Augustine’s superb pupil, Calvin, and Kuyper & Geerhardus Vos.
Maybe it was you who was a bit snippy before you thought my response to your question through.
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Because without God, “good,” “evil,” “suffering,” are meaningless terms. Meaning, how do you call something “evil” without an object standard of “good” against which to measure it?
Life itself would be nothing more than every man for himself, with no purpose.
(I do find it amusing that those who profess no belief in any god, rail against evil & suffering.)
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I believe in God because in these moments, it is all I have left.
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I believe in God because I have hope that behind it all love, joy, beauty, truth exists. I refuse to let the bad erase the good that comes our way in this world.
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I believe because God, through His gift of grace to me, enabled me to believe. I would not be able to wrap my cynical, human mind around the concept of “God” otherwise.
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I guess my best answer would be: because I was raised to believe in God.
I thought really, really hard about the answer…and I don’t know. I’ve been questioning a lot lately. I don’t know if my faith is shipwrecked, but lately I’ve been questioning everything. I’m going through a lot now, and while there have been little bits of light and hope, I think I’ve been thrown into a dark night of the soul — a permanent one.
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To be honest, I don’t really know why I believe. Faith in my life is a mysterious gift. If I think about it a lot, it sometimes seems preposterous, but mostly it makes perfectly inexplicable sense. I haven’t always been close to God but I have seen Him in other people.
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“My soul, seek the Only One . . . My soul, you have no part with
the earth; for you are from heaven. You are the image of God: seek
your First Image. For like strives after like. Each object finds
its rest in its center and element — fish in water, fire in its
upward movement everything strives to its center. My soul, you are
an immaterial spirit, immortal. . . In Him alone you will find
your rest. ”
St. Tikhon of Voronezh
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It never occurred to you that your inability to facilitate a basic theological construct makes you… not the smartest guy in the room after all?
Hm. If only the rest of the world could achieve the enlightenment you surpassed at a trot at age 13…
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Because of the Resurrection. If Jesus rose from the dead and, as absurd as it sounds no other explanation matches the facts as well, then that changes everything. Remember, even in first century Palestine, people were bright enough to know dead people don’t just get up and walk around; yet, people did see Him and believed and that belief turned the world upside down. Jesus’ resurrection validates every claim He made, including the promise of everlasting life in a world where there will be no tears and no death and God Himself will be with us. In this world of hurt and pain and death, the fact of Jesus’ resurrection gives me assurance that death will be defeated and fills me with hope.
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Love that spirit of kindness, Mike. Wow.
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Chaos. Simply put, chaos. Think it’s bad now? Try *real* randomness. We’re experiencing pain now; imagine (if you can) how bad it could really be. No God, no hope. For anything. Get over yourself.
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yes, yes, yes! nuff said!
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I would say something similar to what Anna A. said–I believe in God, because I believe in love. It’s what brought her to that bed after a 10 year absence. Love is there in the heartbreak, in the brokenness, in the moments of joy. In the end, it is all there is.
I hope she was able to find comfort in your words. My heart and prayers go out to her.
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I will be posting a follow up soon.
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I believe because God showed me. When I needed to know I asked him and he showed me. I can’t expect you to have the same experience I’ve had, but I can pray that’you’ll ask him in your own way and he’ll give you what you need to know to believe. Jesus says, “Knock and the door will be opened to you.”
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I’m not one of those people who “believes in God.” I’m not sure what the word “God” even means. To me the universe, life and death are mysteries which I do not expect ever to fathom. Sometimes, based on experiences in my life, I have had the impression that “meaningful coincidences” exist, and that these suggest a conscious, caring universe. However, I am aware that this is likely to be projection on my part.
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I believe in God, becasue I believe in love, and have seen love worked out in both my life and the lives of others. I believe in God becasue of the beauty of the universe from the farthest star to the smallest crystal. I know that He loves you and your family more than you can imagine.
(Then, I would stand silently, inviting a hug, if she wanted one)
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My answer: Sometimes I believe in God, sometimes I don’t. I think if there were a God, and it really matters to him/her that I believe, he/she will take care of contacting me. Drumming up belief isn’t my job. What’s important is that we do the best we can to relate to other people the way a God worth worshipping would relate to them. Then even if isn’t a God worth worshipping, then we will still have done our best.
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It seems tough to believe in a supremely good being when unbearable suffering is upon us. But if there is no God than we have no hope. If this life is all there is, why even bother? But there is some good news…
And I wouldn’t add this part, but….
After all, if a supremely good being was bound to conform to our standards of how reality should unfold, who does that set up as God? I for one understand that I would make a lousy ruler of the universe.
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Same thing I was wondering!
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OK, but if we’re REALLY supposed to answer the question as if we were in the room, then I would hope that none of us would have said any of these things. I would hope we would have said something more like, “Sometimes it’s really hard to believe. What do you think about it?” and then just sat down to listen.
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Chaplain Mike,
What did you end up telling her?
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Michael: Would you say that those poor souls who Jesus touched and to whom he said, “Your faith has healed you,” were insulting because they reached out for help and comfort?
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As a fellow wheelchair user– what you said! 🙂
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Michael,
Not everything in Christianity *is* a matter of faith. For example, there is historical evidence, outside of the Bible, for the life, teachings, and claims of Jesus. There is historical evidence that the original apostles, who knew Jesus personally, were willing to die, and did die, for His claims about who He was. Skeptical researchers have looked at the historical basis for the claims of Christianity, in order to disprove them, and have eventually converted. The faith of Christianity is not a blind faith but is founded on historical facts. To reject Christianity because of the things that *are* matters of faith is….well… not very reasonable.
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“believing because it is ‘comforting’ is nothing less than an insult”
True. But the question here was ‘why believe in God when there is so much suffering’. It’s natural enough that an answer to that question – not an essay but a simple answer – would refer to God as some type of answer/comfort to that suffering. It’s one answer, for most people; not the whole answer.
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He told me you would say that.
So I have a tract for you, Patrick.
See ya down at First Baptist Wednesday night.
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That’s the second half of the question “So why are you a Christian rather than Buddhist, Moslem, Wiccan or any other variety of theist?”
Why am I convinced the Christian mythos is truer than the Greek pantheon, the Egyptian, the Norse?
Am I going to be shocked, shocked! I tell you! when similarities are pointed out to dying-and-rising Saviours? When Christ is compared to Adonis, Dionysius, or Meso-American Corn Deities?
No, but that’s a different and longer explanation 🙂
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I don’t believe (and believing because it is ‘comforting’ is nothing less than an insult). When I was 13, I was in confirmation classes (Episcopal) and struggling over the notion of a trinity. I asked Father Duell over and over and on many occasions to make sense of the notion that they are different but the same and finally, in apparent exasperation, he said “it’s a matter of faith’.
OK, fine. That means that faith=something for which there is no evidence or explanation.
I’ve never looked back. And the notion that I am here in this universe and in control of my own life is astonishingly empowering. The idea of ‘heaven’ and ‘hell’ is just vacuous. At some point, mankind will outgrow this silliness. Not now, though.
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When I was an unbeliever, something or someone kept showing up to make me wonder as I continued to dodge the question of life. As I kept looking and learning, only God (as He presents himself to each of us) made sense, as to who it was that kept chasing me. So I stopped and let him catch me.
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I came to believe in the Bible because it was the most accurate description of human nature I have ever read. I have come to know the God described there personally since, and experienced his faithfulness in the many difficulties of my life. I suffer, but I don’t do it alone. It is faith, but not blind faith.
I live in a powerchair, so it is obvious to anyone who meets me that my life is tough. It means that a lot of the lead up to that statement never needs be spoken, and also that most people who ask that are wondering how I can still believe in God.
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Because no one else has words of eternal life. (Peter’s words to Jesus in John 6:68.) And because of God’s great love for us, that while we were sinners and God’s enemies, Jesus died for us. (Romans 5:8) And because nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ. (Romans 8:39) And that means that as hard as it may be, we believe in God and trust him. Is there another answer for suffering, life, and death? I explored this some time ago on my blog.
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I didn’t give my reason for my reply – oops! Not good at following instructions 🙂
Presuming she asked for further clarification I would tell her that the Ten Commandments really get to me especially the one about ‘honoring parents’. I would tell her about how my mother committed slow suicide with alcohol abuse and had deserted me when I was little and gained me back when I was a little older, by the time I was 22 I had enough of her craziness and had left home and was going to travel my country. The last time I saw my mother alive she was drunk and I was silently wishing she was dead and then she did die 3 months later. I felt guilty and then my own life spiralled out of control as I used drugs and men to numb the pain. I hit bottom when I was alone and pregnant with my second child and I needed medical help – I cried out to a God I wasn’t sure was there but if He was and He did write those commandments then I needed to talk to Him but I was scared. I experienced a slight relief in my medical problem and made it to a hospital, while I was there I read The Gospel of John and read about Jesus and the cross and hope was born in me. Not perfection – hope – I went on to fail twice more yet found no matter how far I stray a love I cannot explain keeps drawing me back to the promise of the cross and resurrection. Sorry if I again went over the ‘short paragraph’ rule.
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In God I have found Life, True Life. Not merely existence.
When I come to Him I find mercy, compassion, and the deepest Love I have have ever know.
He found me in my brokenness when I called to Him. He took me just as I was and not how
I thought I should be. His nearness is my joy. God is Love. And He even Loves me.
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You made my answer seem to honest and humble instead of important and powerful. Wazza matta you?!
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Because in the final analysis, despite the veneer, I am a horrible person who wants to be forgiven. My facade is more or less intact and most people don’ t think I’m that bad because I’m good at either leaving no tracks or covering the ones left behind. But I need someone who can see me for everything that I am and still love me just the same, who has every right to punish me for being the way I am but chooses instead to redeem me and make me a better person than I could ever hope to be.
I know what I would be without God and it isn’t pretty.
I know what I’ve become with God and His Son Jesus and it is beautiful, and not for who I am, but for who God is.
John 3:16
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I believe in God because I can not really help myself. I grew up with an assumption that God existed, but was distant. Yet, when I struggled with myself, trying to figure out who I was and how I could do all that I wanted to do, I realized that I can do nothing alone; I need someone to sustain me in a way that none of my friends can. I need God to get through each and every day. When my faith was tested by the suicide of someone close to me, I fell into other attempts at solutions, but ONLY God could deliver me.
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Honestly, I’m not sure what I would say, but if I had the presence of mind (God, help me!), I *might* say something similar to this:
“I have not always believed in God. I understand some of your losses, because when I was nine years old, my mother committed suicide. If there is no God and no right or wrong in this world, then my mother might have made the sensible decision, because life can *hurt.* However, I *do* believe there is right and wrong, and I *do* believe that my mother made the wrong decision, because I believe that God exists, and He gives us life and all good things. Do you know Him in your life?”
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I originally believed because I was raised in an environment in which the existence of God was a given. I currently believe (although not without a good dose of doubt) because I feel that the world would be an unbearable place if there is not a God who will make the last and least to be first in the future. The thought that those who have a life of absolute hell in this world will never experience a better reality but only cease to exist is loathsome in my opinion. . .
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I believe in God because He did everything it took to get me to the point of brokenness, where I saw a Saviour who is worthy of my obedience. By His complete and utter grace He made me alive to Christ . The Bible says in 1 Corinthians 1:31 that “it is be His doing doing that I am in Christ Jesus”…
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That’s a good word.
I believe in God because I have found no other satisfactory answer to why there is something rather than nothing. Then I look around at the world and my heart cries out that there is something wrong with the way things are. I believe that in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus I have a solid promise that we are not abandoned by God to fix what we cannot fix. In Jesus, I see God breaking into the world and showing what things should be like, what they will be like, when sin, sorrow, sickness and death are finally destroyed.
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Because it benefits me to do so.
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I believe in God for many reasons, but mostly because I have read and known so many people who have experienced God and I have seen what that experience does for them and the real hope and love and light it brings to people who are experiencing a dark and hurting world.
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(with my hand on her shoulder) “I believe in God now because everything within me testifies alongside with every emotion I see you expressing, now against the pain, despair, hopelessness and meaninglessness and cries out with you for love, healing, hope, reconciliation justice and wholeness of LIFE itself within our families. I have seen and can tell you that those who live holding on to God, to all that God means for good and healing in this world, do bring a light and peace among their families and friends that cannot be quenched by the worst pain and darkest despair. I can’t explain it, but I’ve seen that trusting the steadfast, loving and holy God is more solid than anything material, particularly at moments such as this.”
(Am I cheating because I, too, am a hospice chaplain?)
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Because I needed a redeemer. Because I needed love. Because I needed grace and mercy. And there was only one place I could find that – and it was in Jesus Christ.
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OK, but honestly, the girl in the room would not have heard all that.
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Well, this is five sentences with questionable run-on-iness- that’s the best you’re getting. 🙂
“I have felt his presence in my life, in my world, since I was very small; that part of me that recognizes truth recognizes that I am a broken, sinful person; but, that same part of me realizes that despite all the pain and suffering I see in the world, there is ultimate justice and love and mercy out there as well, and that love and mercy is there only as a result of God’s existence. This is not something that I want to believe; it is something that in my core I know to be true: I know that despite my wretchedness, despite the fact that I do not deserve love and forgiveness, God offers me love and forgiveness every day, every moment of my life. I am eternal, but I am only a visitor to this world; and one day I will finally get to come home…and how was that made possible? Because God loved me (and all of us) so much that he sacrificed his only son, merely asking us to have faith him him in exchange for eternal life. The sacrifice and resurrection of Christ were an act of such ultimate, magnificent love that I really have no choice but to believe in, love, and worship God.”
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But is it the million dollar bill tract?
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Because someday I will see my mother again. Because after she died of a stroke, when I was seventeen, I could cry out to a God who had suffered just as much. Because when we asked Him “Why?”, He answered from the Cross. Because He promises *life*, somewhere beyond all of this.
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Oh, I think it can. Especially when someone is hurting. Proof-texting and whatnot doesn’t usually help when someone is hurting, grieving, etc. ‘Cuz really, that girl isn’t asking you to prove God to her; rather, she’s asking how God could allow the pain she’s experiencing to happen. “If God exists, and he’s loves me, why would he let this happen to me? Why would he let this happen to those I love? Why would he let stuff like this happen at all?” While i could definitely see Jesus being part of a meaningful answer to her, she’s not asking for a rational and convincing argument. She’s asking for a way to find meaning in the midst of meaninglessness, suffering, and pain.
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Initially I believed in God because I was raised to do so, but as I grew older and experienced the joys and struggles of life, I continued to believe in him because that’s the only way both the good and the evil in life make sense to me. In such a screwed-up world, the good must come from someone or somewhere, and our thirst for more good suggests that it’s out there somewhere. In short, my very longing for God in the midst of this screwed-up world tells me that he must be there. Plus, many times when I go to him in prayer, I sense his presence encouraging me, strengthening me, and making me better than what I’d be left to my own inclinations.
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OK. Sorry I did not make it clear. I’ll update the post to clarify.
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There is no way to prove God exists, or doesn’t exist. So I don’t say that I believe in God so much as that I HOPE in God. If God truly exists, then all our tears will be turned to joy, and all our suffering will be turned into gladness. If there is no God, I would still rather hope that there is.
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Huh? Oh. I didn’t realize I only got a paragraph when responding to someone else too. Sorry.
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I admittedly didn’t approach the question as an attempt to comfort her, but as an attempt to honestly answer her question. There’s no pat answer when dealing with someone suffering and/or dying. I wouldn’t personally attempt an answer to comforting someone without actually being in the room. I think.
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I believe in God because of the way that the human condition and nature reflect the words of Scripture. Only the Story of God found in Scripture can explain both the extreme goodness and total depravity and brokenness–emotional, spiritual, and physical–of humanity. Only the Story of God offers a solution to that sin and brokenness, through Jesus Christ. Because the Story of God offers the only explanation of our reality and the only resolution of the brokenness of that reality that makes sense, I believe in Christ risen from the dead, dying in my place, raised from the dead so that I might have life.
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MOD NOTE: Kaci, I appreciate your thoughts, but you gotta play by the rules.
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I believe in God first and foremost because I am compelled by the life and person of Jesus. I cannot read his words in the Gospels without feeling a timeless and inexplicable connection to his life, ministry, death, and resurrection to my own life 2000 years later. I also believe in God because through the natural world, I find a connection with what I can only call the divine when I contemplate its wonders. Sometimes, for a brief instant, even in the midst of suffering, I see the veil to heaven turned back, revealing the deeper reality and joy behind all existence, and I can’t call that anything but God.
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This. Other reasons, too, but this, most of all.
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I haven’t read any of the other answers yet, I’m answering for myself first.
“It’s because I see God in the person of Jesus Christ. He lived an impoverished life, died a gruesome death, but then came back to life victorious over death. When all seems hopeless, and it often does, I find hope in Him.”
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I interpret my experience of beauty, love, creativity, intelligence, community, a material universe unable to create itself from nothing, and powerful transforming stories of forgiveness, self-sacrifice, and divine self-revelation — passed down from culture to culture for millennia — as proof of a transcendent Truth that I would have to be unbelievably arrogant to reject without greater evidence to the contrary. Like everyone else, I lack perfect certainty, and so I prefer to bet my life on a belief in purpose and in the hope of immortality, rather than on radical doubt and meaninglessness.
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I believe in God because He did for me what I could not do for myself.
I spent over 20 years trying to deliver myself from a hopeless condition, when I surrendered and asked Jesus to help me I was delivered and hope was restored.
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I believe in God because without God there is no hope
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I’ll write then read what others are saying. I believe in God because the alternative is hell. Not just the destination but for me it would mean a hell now in a life consisting of disintegration, emptiness, insanity and utter despair. Even tho I can still doubt God and be a bit nihilistic, I could not imagine existence without him.
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It doesn’t matter if I believe in God, as what matters is that he believes in me. He believes that I can make a difference in this world, and that with his help I can ease people’s suffering by caring for and serving them. I know this because he’s sent people into my life to ease my own suffering at difficult times and to give me great joy at other times. I know this because he gave me this Bible, which says that by following him he’ll do exactly that and all I have to do is ask.
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Chaplain Mike: you asked us to put ourselves in your shoes in the situation you described.
I believe in God because he walked where you walk; he stood where you stand; he asked the question you asked. “Eli, eli, lama sabachthani.” He had a friend who also committed suicide. He knows how to love you when it all goes sideways.
I think my reasons are pretty self-explanatory.
Pax. John
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Wow, that’s a long sentence, Chaplain Mike!
I also know it is not good form to start sentences with “And” or “But,” but I do it anyway.
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I believe in God because I feel His Presence in my life, not just in providential ways, but I sense His Presence through a certain well-being and peacefulness that doesn’t leave me in times of trouble.
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I believe in God because I see what Christ has done in the lives off those closest to me, and, from the Bible, I can see what God did in the lives of those who first met and followed Christ. Their challenges are my challenges, their doubts are my doubts, and their hopes are my hopes, and if I can know that their lives were changed and the lives of those around them, then I can know that my life and the lives of those around me, can be changed, reflecting the image of the Father.
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I believe in God because there’s never been a time in my life when I have not felt his presence in some form. I have seen my own family blessed abundantly and enjoying the fruits of peace and righteousness—God’s gifts, while other relations or friends who were otherwise the same as my family in terms of education, upbringing and material prosperity have struggled through endless painful broken relationships, troubled lives and more. The only difference between my family and others has been a consistent acknowledgement and submission to God in our lives. It’s not a matter of pride but just of personal experience that I have been graciously allowed to be a part of. And as I grew up and to this day, God has blessed me in similar ways, taken care of me always, kept me out of trouble when left to myself I would have been really sorry and more. I love deep theology, but my personal experience with God all my life long is why I believe.
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You could have gone the “Paul” route, Joanie. His sentence in the original Greek of Ephesians 1:3-14 is 105 words long!
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there’s a special place in heaven for you, Patrick
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I believe in God because when I look at creation, it seems to me that some creative intelligence had to put all this into action. And though at times it seems that if there is a God then it must be a God who doesn’t care, when I read about Jesus the stories about Jesus ring true to me. And Jesus was all about telling us how much God DOES care and love each and every one of us. I have found strength, peace, joy in the midst of a troubling life by praying and living with faith in Jesus. There are times when it may seem trite and mundane to believe as a Christian believes, but I cannot leave Jesus; he has the words of eternal life.
(Chaplain Mike: notice how I kept to the rules of making the paragraph no more than four sentences by using a semi-colon in the last senetence. 😉 )
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He told me you would ask that. He also told me to give you this tract about Him. Read it; it’s very apropos to your situation right now.
WE’LL SEE YA.
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So, what would you say to this young woman, and how would you say it?
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As I get older I realize more and more that I am not immortal and I am not bulletproof. But I believe that a guy named Jesus claimed to be the Son of God, died on a cross, and was raised from the dead. And because of that I and the people that I care about can be raised too (1 Corinthians 15). It is a delightfully scandalous riddle that I will never fully figure out.
The teleological argument of seeing God’s beauty in Nature is also compelling to me, but the first reason means the most.
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I don not believe in god because I am not afraid of not knowing the answers to life’s questions. I am also not content to say “god must have had this in his plans for me” when I come to something that I can’t readily explain. I don’t believe in eternal life, I find the though of it quite unnerving and mostly wishful thinking. Mostly if he’s not going to help me with my mortgage then I not going to bother him.
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I can’t make sense of a world without God. I can’t make sense of God without Jesus.
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“That’s a great question. I believe in God for a couple of reasons: I look at nature and think there must have been an intelligent being to put the universe in place. And when I read the Bible, what it says about the love that God has shown us through Jesus, who went to the cross for us, rings true. Although it has been hard to trust in God when I suffer or see other people suffer, like here, I have found hope in believing that ultimately God is working toward his own good purposes and allowing me to be a part of that.
“I hope you don’t mind my asking: Is believing in God something that you are trying to do now?”
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At age 19, as much as I tried, I found I was powerless to stop drinking. Even watching a drinking buddy try to commit suicide wasn’t able to do it for me. Finally I cried out to God and asked him to help me with my problem. Alcohol lost its hold on my life from that point forward. Coincidence? Maybe. But when coincidence after coincidence happens it is not that hard to put 2 + 2 together and end of with 4.
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I don’t know if I want to get into all the details of it, but I like what Michael Spencer said in one of his Coffee Cup Apologetics (which is geared toward limited conversation time). He said when you know time is limited, you should focus on Jesus.
I believe in the God who is revealed in the face of Jesus who died for me and rose again.
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I’m a Jew, I believe because believing provides me a heritage and a set of rules of the road to life. In my life, the Divine does not comfort, or curse or bless. Most of the suffering in the world is explainable by simple human behavior and not attributable to anything supernatural.
I really don’t think, though, that this would comfort anyone! Least of all the young woman asking. I guess I’d try to turn it around and see what she believed and why.
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I find many of these comments interesting in light of a White Horse Inn podcast a listened to the other day. The hosts were concerned about answers given at a pastor’s conference that had a similar ring: many stated their faith/belief was based on “experiencing” God, or “experiencing” events. Only a few mentioned that their faith is actually based on a person (Jesus), or certain historical events (the Cross, the Empty Tomb).
Does describing personal “experiences” really impact those outside the faith?
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I need to believe I am forgiven.
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I believe in God because I have experienced His love, His presence, His power, and His forgiveness.
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I believe in God because I believe in Jesus. I don’t have all the answers. I can’t tell you why things happen the way they do. But I believe in God because I believe Jesus died and rose from the grave. It sounds crazy at first, and in someways it is. But for me it all starts and ends with Jesus. Here’s my card/phone number. If you want someone to talk to, or just need someone to listen, give me a call.
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Love. Love exists. God created love. God is love. His extreme love for man was shown to us through His Son, Jesus Christ. Jesus did not come to fix all the brokenness in this world. He showed us how much we mean to Him and how much He wants us to belong to Him. And, forever, we will experience His love and care, with no more sorrow, pain, or tears.
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I would say to her- At times like you are experiencing right now, God is the ONLY thing that makes sense. To think that this brief life is all there is, is unacceptable! Creation screams His presence every glorious moment, and my own life experiences where my prayers have been heard & answered do, as well. His greatest gift of Jesus seals my eternal destination- there is LIFE after life!
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I believe in God because it is easier for me to believe that an eternal, all-powerful divine being created the universe as we know it than for me to believe in the eternal existance of the universe.
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It’s a poor apologetic, but I must believe there’s a God; only a God can and must make right (someday) all the horror and pain that fills this world. I don’t think about why (as in origin) there’s so much misery, poverty, sickness, murder, rape, and pain, only that it’s all got to end someday. Meantime, we’ve got to do our puny and insignificant part to slow it down. But someday there’s got to be justice. Lazarus and the rich man kind of justice…Otherwise, I’d go nuts..
I think of Christ. Who could have made up the gospels? I love this man who loved so much.
That’s really all I have.
. (Oh sure, I eventually get into the Catholic Cathecism for the details, but you asked about God, and I gave you my very basic, gut answer.)
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I believe in God because it’s the only thing that makes sense to me. There have been times when I wish I didn’t, or that I believed in some other god or gods (because of the sense of my own sinfulness) but I’ve never been able to convince myself it was all wish-fulfilment or fantasy.
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I believe in God because in my life his existence has been proven to me again and again, in both the good times and in every bad time. I can give you all sorts of intellectual arguments, and we could spend a lot of hours getting into some pretty great conversations, but standing here in this place of immense pain and sadness the simplest answer is I believe in God because I’ve tried to not believe and can’t. And believing in God is the greatest comfort for me right now, right here.
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My answer:
My dad is a blue collar man who only believes in death and taxes and has no room for God in his life. Yet, I refuse to believe that there is nothing more to life than a forty-hour work week and a paycheck. He became unemployed a couple of years shy of retirement and has nothing of meaning in his life except a recliner, Fox News and helping his wife’s fledging dog-breeding business. I don’t want to end up like him. That’s why I believe in God.
True story.
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When I stand on my farm some mornings by myself watching the sun rise, when it is just me and the universe at that moment, I cannot deny that I am a man created in God’s image and with an immortal soul. At that moment, I know that I am–that is, that I exist–and because of this, I know that he must be. I believe in God because he believed in me enough to send his son to die and rise for me almost two thousand years before I was born and ensured that I would know that he did this be ensuring that his word survived for me to receive it.
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I am a relative newcomer to this blog, and I want to thank you for the amazing thing you have here.
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I believe in God because, without something to underly and sustain reality, reality either does not exist or has no subjective or objective meaning. Without God, life is a nightmare in the most literal sense of the word. With God, the universe–and man–has hope to awaken from bad dreams. I believe in God because i have experienced his presence firsthand and secondhand. I believe in God because I believe my disabilities and sins, though at the root of evil, are gifts. I believe in God because, in my heart, I know there must be something greater and more real than myself.
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Because otherwise, life would be senseless, horrible, and pointless. It is still that way, but with God, we can have hope that suffering is temporary and everything will somehow be put right. So I guess I’d say, “I believe in God because at the core of my being I believe that our lives have meaning.”
(That may be a completely subjective philosophically indefensible answer. But, it’s the only thing that came to mind after thinking about it for a minute. Therefore, it is the only thing I would be at all likely to say if I was actually in that situation. Another possible answer would be, “I don’t know.” And that would be equally true.)
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The bottom line – when I left Islam, my fiance tried to murder me. I called out the name of Jesus and the black belt karate man could not touch me. I owe my allegiance to the God who saved my life and my soul.
Now, before you get on me, please realize I have other reasons – you know the long logical ones, but last month when I was visiting a week-long seminar populated by a wide, WIDE variety of folks but mainly hippies and pagans, I got asked my story by various people. The logical reasons really wouldn’t have cut it, but to tell my story and the wonder of the intervention by God in my existence – now that was powerful and something they could respect and ask questions about.
I believe in God because he intervened in the affairs of this human.
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At the risk of sounding horribly simplistic, I have thought about this before, and I really can’t imagine not believing in God. It’s a bit like asking why I believe my parents exist. I’ve seen him move; I know he’s answered my prayers; I know he’s sustained myself and so many others. I can tell more stories of his presence than his absence, and it’s in the middle of sorrow I rely on him the most.
Maybe that’s trite. I’ve had my share of sorrow. I’ve experienced it first- and second-hand. And when in the middle of the darkness, he’s sometimes hard to hear…but sometimes it’s in the darkness I hear him best.
That’d be my answer to her, or something close. Beyond that…well, people take encouragement differently.
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I believe in God because I see his handiwork everywhere. I believe in God because without him life, for me, would be pointless. I believe in God because I am obsessed with thoughts of him. I believe in God because I feel he put eternity in my heart.
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I believe in God because I believe in evil.
If there is an active force of evil, there must be its corresponding opposite i.e. an active force of good.
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