Is Faith in God a Blind Faith?
>I saw God as a rigid being who was certain to punish me when I was naughty; I was naughty all the time. My perception of God was influenced by all the years I went to a prviate Christian school from elementary school until high school graduation.
>When I started university and got a job, everything changed. I started asking all those questions people ask themselves. "Why are we really here?" What if what I believe isn't true?" "What's another word for 'thesaurus?" I needed answers to these questions and so much more.
I had grown up in the Church, but that didn't mean I had any real meaningful relationship or understanding of God or the Bible. I wasn't sure exactly why I believed what I believed. I knew my beliefs had been largely if not entirely influenced by my Christian upbringing; I had to ask myself "Do I really believe this?"
To answer this question, I had to draw upon my own life experiences and observations of living a life of prayer and faith in a loving God. My observations had taught that no matter how spiritual people were, they lived with the choices that they made. Being religious is not a recipe for success. If we make poor choices, we will get poor results. I have also learned that we cannot predict what the future will bring as demonstrated by H.M. Warner of Warner Brothers when he said "Who the hell wants to hear actors talk?" He said that in 1927.
Since we live with our choices and we cannot predict the future, I decided to give prayer a chance. I believe that there is a loving God who created me and cares about me. He knows exactly what I need to live a life of purpose. He wants me to make the right choices. I have experienced intense changes as a result of prayer. I see people differently than I did before prayer; I care more about how I affect people.
Life still presents many challenges, hardships, and pain, but that's life; you don't have to go through it alone and without purpose. God cares about you and knows exactly who you are and what you need.
>When it's all said and done, you're free to make a choice of whether God exists or not. You can choose whether you believe he loves you; you have free will. I recommend that you not wait for such evidence as to satisfy every query you have; you will never be satisfied; life is full of ambiguity.
Consider looking to faith. Faith in a loving God is not blind faith. God becomes real to all those who seek him. There is both experiential and factual evidence to help you get started on your spiritual journey. And when that only gets you so far, faith will take you further into your journey.
As William Salter said, "As the essence of courage is to stake one's life on a possibility, so the essence of faith is to believe that the possibility exists." And finally, from an ancient letter written to the Hebrews: "Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen."
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