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My Evidence of God
We live in a time where it seems more absurd to believe in
God than not to believe. I was recently posed with the question, “How can you
believe in something you cannot see?” Well, I can see God. I can see him in countless
ways and some of them are material and some of them are more feeling. At the
end of your life, with your last conscious breath are you more likely to hope
for the next life or accepting that this is it? Ponder that while I share my
God, or my evidence of my God.
I do not believe in chance, happenstance, or coincidence. I
believe that all things happen as seen by God. I did not say all things are
planned by God or willed by God, but all things are known to God. God is never surprised
by our happenings. God will use it all for his good and will take our darkest
moments and turn them into light. I once met a young woman who was the “blessing”
her grandmother had prayed for. Her grandmother had prayed daily, nightly for
her granddaughter to break her drug addiction and to turn her heart and life to
God. Her grandmother died before seeing her granddaughter break her drug addiction,
turn her life to the Lord, and become an “Elder” of her church. These were
answered prayers – just they happened on God’s time not her grandmother’s time.
God will use any situation to reach your soul and to change your life.
If you are a reader of mine, then you know my struggles with
cancer, my broken relationships with my parents, my struggles with depression
and body image and my tendency to seek isolation over companionship. God knows
all these things about me. He knows my struggles and I trust him to deliver me
from these – either here on earth or in heaven. Right now, I am preparing for a
scan tomorrow to look at a growth in my body that has been prone for cancer. If
the doctor is correct, this will be my 2nd recurrence – my third
time around battling cancer. I should be a lot less calm than I am, but I had
my freak out moment last week, and it lasted about a day and then I just let it
all go. This “possible” cancer is not a surprise of my God and I have faith
that my God will use it for his glory and that I will be healed of it – either here
on earth or in heaven and I accept that. Having that faith, that acceptance,
that inner calm and peace – HAS NOT COME FROM ME. Trust me, if I were in
control – I would still be in freak out mode. This assurance that God’s got
this – well it has set me free.
So how do I prove to others that God exists? Well, there are
countless documentaries (from either side of this debate) that explain creation
and/or evolution. There are debates about the authorship, events, and history
of the bible, and every now and then someone finds an artifact that dates to someone
mentioned in the bible. There is not a historian alive that does not believe
that Jesus (the man) walked on this earth. The only debate is his divinity. Archaeologically
speaking there are artifacts that have been found that mention or are from the
time of Solomon (and reference David). Scientist have managed tor trace DNA to
one man and one woman. There’s evidence of a giant flood, evidence of civilization
originating from a single point. There’s evidence of existence happening from a
big bang – but no one can scientifically explain that point of existence. Clearly
you can look at all of this from the side of creation or the side of evolution –
just know that scientifically, God has not been determined to be non-existence –
meaning science cannot prove that God does not exist.
I know God exists because I have been lucky enough to have
not one, but four God moments, moments where there is no other logical
explanation. But even without those moments, I have the following that help me
to believe and know that God is God:
1. Forgiveness: Sounds crazy – but forgiving someone is not
easy, letting go of hurt and anger, rebuilding on trust and love is hard. I do
not believe that humans are capable of forgiving without the foundation of God
and the belief that we are forgiven and must forgive others. Anyone alive
during 9/11 remembers the story (unverified) that President George W. Bush used
9/11 as an excuse to attack Iraq and to kill Saddam Hussein – to seek vengeance
for Saddam Hussein’s planned (failed) assassination of his father, President
George H. W. Bush. Again, this is not a verified story – but it does show how
easy it is for us to believe it is true. We humans have a great capacity to
hold on to hate and anger and deny forgiveness. Forgiveness is very freeing and
honestly has less to do with the person you are forgiving and more to do with
you.
2. Love: Yes, we humans are very capable of love. The closest we come to experiencing
and expressing love like God is the love of a parent. Even when we love our
children, we still are not even close to the definition of love that is
expressed in the bible. God’s love for us is selfless, it is
without reason, it is never ending, it is complete and does not require us to
love back, it is beyond unconditional. God will love us even if we reject him.
God loves the souls that perish in Hell. I know many people (that are parents –
or are children) that have strained relationships with their parents, because their
parent’s unconditional love really meant – they would love the child if the child
lived up to all their expectations – and if the child failed more than once to
measure up, the parent showed hurt and a feeling of being disappointed – and that
of course strained the relationship. You cannot disappoint God – he already
knows what you will and will not do. He wrote the story and knows the ending –
and loves us anyway. I remember laying in a hospital bed filled with gloom and
doom, feeling unable and unworthy to receive any love – and then Jesus showed
up in the room and changed my life. He loved me at my weakest and lowest
moment. His love made way for redemption. I can remember being 16 and having a
moment that was low – very low. I remember coming home (later than I was
supposed to) and feeling so broken. Anyone that knew my mom – knows she was in
bed by 10pm and was a sound sleeper. She was not prone to wake up in the middle
of the night and if she did – she did not “chat”. On this night, something woke
her up and she came to my room, and she held me. I cried and she held me. That was
God. That was his love for me. He knew my need and made a way.
3. Nature and Animals: If you don’t know the story of the
Arc and Noah – well I can say this “read your bible – even if you only read it
for the stories”. Something that is often missed or glossed over during the
telling of the story is God’s proclamation that all his creation (other than humans) is innocent and worthy to be saved. God flooded the earth (he didn’t
burn it down and destroy it completely). He made way for all the flowers,
grass, trees, and landscape to come back. He picked the least offensive humans
to build a vessel to carry his sacred and innocent animals. He made sure that
the animals were in pairs of two so that they could reproduce and repopulate
the earth. Look at the description of the Garden of Eden – a beautiful heaven
on earth with fruit, vegetation, trees, flowers, and the innocent animals. He
slaughters the innocent lamb to cover the sinful humans. Every time you look at
an animal and have that “awe moment” – that’s God. When you see a garden that
brings you to tears, or when you relish on the beauty that is nature – that’s
God. Seriously, you need to look at the perfect beauty that is a flower, a baby
deer, a lazy stream, a perfectly formed rock, the simple, yet eloquent beauty
of wildflowers and tall grass. God painted us a masterpiece and then created us
to keep it up.
4. Being
moved/Emotion: I am going to sum this up with just this…My stepfather was one
of the hardest persons to like. He was hard-working, prejudicial, hard-headed, stubborn,
and sometimes cold. That said, he could be moved to feel things like love and
compassion. I could not move him. My mom could not move him. A presenter on
television (prior to him turning 70) could not move him. Earthly things could
not get him to budge…but God, well God can move mountains (even man-made ones).
My stepfather once took in a homeless man, gave him space (at his place of
business), gave him food, and gave him work (so he could earn money) – and he even
cried when the old homeless man died. He did this with an abandoned dog he
found (he named him after the homeless man). He did this with those suffering
(after 70 – those tv commercials of dying children made him soft). Again, this is God. When you,
as a human, in your usual day-to-day life don’t feel love and compassion and
all of a sudden you feel moved to act, be compassionate, to help – that is GOD.
There are things that exist (scientifically) that you cannot
see with your eyes – yet we know they are there: Air (and other gasses) cannot be
seen (vapors yes – but that is a mixture of more than gas). Love (and all other
feelings). Sooner than later – MONEY. I get paid by direct deposit – that sum
of money goes to my bank and then is spent via direct payments. I do not touch
it. It is getting to the point that there will not be physical money. Just saying
we would all panic if our direct deposits did not show up on pay-day – and yet it
is something we don’t physically hold/touch.
No, I cannot provide you with tangible evidence of God’s
existence. He is not your scissors on your desk. He is not the coffee cup you
are holding. He is so much more. His existence is so grand that it cannot be measured
or seen with our eyes. My faith tells me that having faith in God, through my salvation
provided by Jesus, means that I believe in the things unseen, that I must have
faith when there is no evidence to support it. It’s blind. It’s trust. That
said, I have never felt more love than I do right now, and that love comes from
God. My bliss, my calm – all comes from God.
This week alone, God has sent me some very important words
to help me through. I have heard of other’s suffering with cancer and have
provided some comforting words to them. That felt very purposeful and
encouraging. I have received prayers from grown men, who know me (only through
work) and have stopped and prayed with me or sent a prayer to me. I gave comfort
to an older woman that was setting up documents to sell off all she had (so she
could just live out and die) – she was feeling a bit of self-pity – and I
played the cancer card (I do not usually play it) – showing her that we don’t give up
on life. Life is precious – it is meant to be lived until God says stop. We put
one foot in front of the other and we move. We stay connected to loved ones. We
keep laughing. We keep crying. God created us to experience life, love and to
hopefully seek him, believe in him, and to praise and worship him. I will always
be grateful to the cancer – the cancer brought me face to face with God. I have
felt his love, his grace, his mercy. That is something!
God bless you and may each of you have an amazing week.
