What I Realized When I Attempted To Let My Faith Go

As a young man in college, it began to occur to me that I may have simply embraced the Christian faith because it was handed down to me by my parents.  I wondered, “Is it possible I think of myself as a Christian because I have been raised in a social context in which there is an expectation that I will accept this belief system?”

“Is it possible I have been brainwashed by sincere, kind, well-meaning people, but what has occurred is, nevertheless, a form of brainwashing?”

                                                                                              

I seriously wrestled with the possibility that I may have been attempting to live something which I did not actually own for myself.

So this may sound like a strange way to describe it, but it’s the best way I can put it into words: I gave myself permission to let it go.  In my mind, I gave myself permission to walk away from the faith if it was not what I really believed.

What I discovered in that time of searching, wondering, stretching and questioning is that I am unable to NOT believe in God. The conviction that God exists is undeniable to me.

The Christian faith involves the grace of God in a way that is beyond just an intellectual pursuit.  However, since those college years I have done a considerable amount of reading and study regarding God and the Christian faith and I remain sincerely convinced of its truth. 

We Know God Exists

Deep down in our heart of hearts we know God exists.  We know this because He has revealed Himself to us in several ways if we are willing to see.

When I write that He has revealed Himself I mean, for example, the universe came into existence and, ultimately, the only two options are that it came into existence as a result of random chance plus time or as the purposeful action of some type of powerful intelligence.

Time plus random chance, however, can never produce information.  An intellect, of some type, is always required to produce information.  Time and random chance can produce patterns, such as the ripple patterns we see in the sand.  But if we are walking along the beach, look down, and see “Dan loves Nadia” carved in the sand we know with complete certainty an intelligence of some kind produced that message which is conveying information.

With that in mind, consider that every living cell contains volumes of “information.”  They do not contain random data, they contain huge amounts of actual information.  Time plus random chance cannot do this.  If we will be completely honest with ourselves we know this to be true.

God has revealed Himself if we are willing to see.

So, the Bible contains a statement like this:  “The fool says in his heart, ‘There is no God.’” Psalm 14:1

Someone might read this post and say, “You see, this is what I hate about guys like you, Dan, you always have to be antagonistic with this God stuff!”

Please know it is genuinely not my desire to be antagonistic.  I write this post to be thought-provoking.  To be frank, I am just a weak, flawed guy who looks around my world with a broken heart and a desire to see people find hope in acknowledging what they know to be true.

Are Miracles A Bunch of Nonsense?

Folks who are skeptical about the Christian faith read the accounts of miracles in the Bible and they say, “This is nonsense! We know these kinds of things could never happen.”  But, in a way, the more fundamental issue is not the miracles.  The more fundamental issue is the existence of God.

If God does not exist then the miracle accounts are absurd.  However, if God does exist—if an all-powerful, Creator exists—then certainly He is capable of doing things that would be miraculous to our understanding of reality.  I believe He exists.