god is real

While growing in faith and learning more and more about what it looks like to believe in God, I have received many questions about religion/my own faith that, at the time, I answered to the best of my ability. But really- I don't have all the answers and never will. If you look up the definition of the word faith you will find that it means complete trust or confidence in someone or something. TRUST. It's like when your friend or parent asks you to trust them even though there is a part of you that is scared whatever it is won't turn out right or in your favor. But with God, we surrender our whole lives to Him, with a deep understanding that He will never fail us. I have come to learn that God will never lay out His whole plan for our life because he wants us to keep coming back in prayer and conversation. If He made everything clear to us all at once, we wouldn't ever go back to Him for guidance and help. More than anything, God wants a relationship with us. He MADE each and every one of us. And He LOVES us more than we will ever understand.

I have written below three of the most difficult questions that I have been asked throughout my spiritual journey. I'm not sure if I gave the best answer when they were asked to me, but after a lot of research and conversation with my friends, I have discovered what I PERSONALLY believe.

But before I go any further, know that these are my own opinions and experiences. I gained this knowledge from friends, asking for advice, and asking similar questions. I never want to preach 'this is right' and 'this is wrong.' Everyone is welcome here and this is just my personal journal of what I have come to find true, but everyone is on a different walk and that is more than okay!

1. How do you know God is real? It all seems just impossible to believe.

At one point, I thought this too. Sometimes I still get overwhelmed with the huge idea of God. HOW can all of this be real? It is such a hard concept to wrap my head around. But let me just start with some cold hard facts that I got from an online source that the Disney actress (haha), China Anne McClain, spoke about...

- Albert Einstein published the Theory of General relativity in 1915 that basically stated his realization that the Earth had a beginning.

- Einstein also published the Law of Causality, which states that everything that has ever come to be needs a cause. If the universe had a beginning, it needed a cause...which brings us to...

- The Big Bang Theory. Before the 'Big Bang,' there was no space, no time, and no matter...meaning the Big Bang emerged out of nothing.

- Robert Jastrow, a very famous astronomer, was agnostic. Agnostic means a person who believes nothing is known or can be known about the existence of God. He said that all essential elements of the Big Bang Theory line up with biblical creation.

So we know it is impossible for the universe to create itself because, well, it didn't exist. So the universe was an EFFECT that was caused by an extremely powerful, extremely intelligent, precise personal entity that exists OUTSIDE of space, time, and matter. What do we have left? God. That can be nothing but God.

The first cause (God) has always existed. He didn't come to be because He is eternal. God doesn't need a cause or creator because He is the cause and creator.

But personally- I know God is real because we have a relationship. I talk to Him daily and He reveals himself to me through people and small, sometimes big, hints that He is working. I have had to learn to open my eyes to see the work He is doing and be patient.

2. Do you have scientific proof to show that god exists?

Well first- scientific proof or evidence is not a substitute for faith. You have to want to follow God. If you don't want to follow Him, no amount of scientific proof will convince you.

Considering the information from the previous question, God created science. The actress went on to explain that He speaks something into existence and science runs to catch up with what He said. Science doesn't actually CREATE...science STUDIES creation.

But if you do the research, you will find that Jesus was a real person. He existed and resurrected from a closed tomb. There are hundreds of documents, stories, and journals that prove this. Jesus is mentioned by Jewish and Roman historians and mentioned in tons of Christian writings. For readers of the Bible, the New Testament lines up with everything the Old Testament predicted. If you are unsure, I encourage you to do extensive research and weigh all options before claiming that God does not exist. In my opinion- it takes more faith to not believe than it does TO believe.

Even people who did not know about Jesus and his story wrote about him. There have been found documents that were written about a man who healed sickness with his touch and performed impossible acts. Without having any religious background or Christian standpoint, these people were witnesses to what was going on when Jesus walked the same ground that they did.

3. If God is so good and loving, why does He let bad things happen?

It is true that God can performs miracles, heal people of illness, revive them from the dead. He is pretty gnarly like that. He is SUPERNATURAL! But I think this question is an umbrella for two smaller questions. Why does he let people die? Why does he let people suffer?

Every human has an unavoidable appointment with death. A friend once put this into perspective to me by saying, "What always is, always was, and always will be." Bad things happen because we live in a broken world and nature can take its own course. Our time on Earth is the opposite of perfect, but that is why we draw close to God. Still though, why do people die? Why are young kids taken from us? Why? Why? Why? The answer to this may be forever unknown, but like I stated at the beginning of this post, THIS is where we have to let faith come in. God will use the darkest moments, the worst situations, the place where we fall to our knees for good if we let Him. He turns graves into gardens. What do I mean by that? I mean maybe one day that family who lost their child, will go on to save hundreds of children. And maybe one day your unborn child will look and remind you of your lost parent. If we draw close to God in the darkest moments, grab his hand, and let him carry us, then I believe somehow we can find peace in the thought of afterlife.

So why do people suffer? A specific question I received one time was regarding 9/11. Why does God let terrorism happen? How can pure evil exist in the world? God gives every person free will. We can choose to know God or we can choose to not believe. If we get hurt by someone and ask God why He let that happen, I imagine he would say something like this:

"The world is broken. If I take away this person's free will, I will have to take away yours because I love my children equally. I do not want to take away anyone's free will because then I have puppets. I want my children to CHOOSE me and to choose to love one another."

It often seems like the world is just full of suffering. But, we have two options with what to do with it...let it crumble over us or pick ourselves up and choose to grow from. Suffering is inevitable but growing is a choice. We can RESTORE ourselves. A close friend of mine always reminded me that years ago, when a vase was broken, it would be restored and put back together with gold to be whole again, making it even more valuable than before. We are the vase. We will break again and again, but become more and more valuable if we let God heal and restore us.

Always,

Sara