God? Faith?

[BigV]

Originally Posted by lookout123

A) You certainly do not need to take your child to church for her to grow into a "good person". you are her teacher and guidance counselor in life. there are many kind, good people who hold no religious belief whatsoever. there are many deeply religious people who act in a cruel and deceitful manner.

B) Only BigV can speak to his experience. He could have very easily reached one of the conclusions you proposed, but he didn't. coincidence? maybe. or he saw what he needed to see at a very fragile crossroads in life. is it miraculous? i don't know about that, but it seems to have been a very important event for him.

C) You are definitely not broken because you question things. In fact, if you didn't i don't believe that would be a good thing. I hold my faith very close to me - i also frequently have doubts and questions. in my view, the depth of my faith is in a state of constant flutctuation, not because of God's changing presence, but because of my receptiveness.

D) Sometimes I see Faith as very similar to Love. I believe they are actions, verbs, decisions. I love my wife very deeply - but this is real life. The "warm fuzzy" love is only there occassionally. But i wake up every morning and make a conscious decision to love my wife. it is a process, a choice more than a feeling. I think it is amusing that many people think that to have a strong Christian faith one must have blind dedication. I have had many struggles with my faith over the years, but my faith has generally come through the other side stronger in some way. Faith is first a choice to believe in something bigger than ourselves, something that cannot be proven to the satisfaction of many. That, in a way, makes it that much stronger. It takes no personal investment to believe in something that is easily verified with one's eyes. Gravity is real. I can drop an apple and see it fall 10 out of 10 times. I have no real feelings for gravity.

I would like to heartily second L123’s thoughts here, all of them. Good person/bad person and religious/faithful really don’t have any connection, but are often conflated. This is a very common example of the suggestability LB mentioned before.

I did (and sometimes still do) consider if what I saw was a “coincidence”, but I concluded that it wasn’t. A choice…

Questions are an integral, necessary part of the equation. Does a clock have “faith” in 3:15 pm? No, it’s just what happens every day on its way ‘round the dial. My questions enhance the value and importance of my faith.

Faith and love—wow, I can add nothing to improve the beauty, clarity and truth of these words. Masterful, Lookout123.