FAY ROWE

I read a blog post the other day written by CNN contributor LZ Granderson. It was very touching, and even though I felt his belief system disregarded basic salvation truths it made me think about why I believe.

It's true that I grew up in a family that went to church three times on Sunday and I went to church camp every summer. My young mind was no doubt imprinted with the reality of an all-knowing, all-powerful creator. Some might say that I was easily brainwashed and that, decades later, my faith is based on tradition and nothing else.

And others might say that faith at any age is simply a choice to believe even though there is no proof of God's existence, as Mr Granderson suggested. After all, they might say, didn't Jesus say, "Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe"?

That may have been the case for me when I was a little girl, and it may be so for many adults even now. Many start out that way. Some, on the other hand, look for reasons to believe first, and find them.

There are, in fact, reasons to believe right in front of us. Psalm 19 tells us that the sun, the moon, and the stars speak every day. Their voice is heard through out the whole earth declaring that a creator exists. Romans tells us that the invisible things of God are clearly seen by the things that are made, so there's no excuse for anyone to say there was no sign of his presence.

But why are we blessed when we believe without seeing? To his friend Martha, Jesus talked about the result of believing. When her brother lay dead in a tomb and she was trying to deal with the discrepancy between her reality and his claim, he said, "Martha, didn't I tell you that if you believed you would see the glory of God?" (John 11:40). According to Jesus, believing has a positive result beyond just making you feel good. It leads to something. Choosing to believe is just the starting point, not the end. It was for Martha!

And I guess that's why my faith, my belief in God's existence and my belief in what he says, is firm today. From childhood days to this day, I've seen what he's done over and over, in nations and in my own little life, in faithfulness to what he has promised. As my years have passed, I've seen the beauty of God's faithfulness to his word, and that has spoken so much louder than the voice and beauty of nature. I've seen the wisdom and the power and the love of God. I've known his self-proclaimed name to be, quite simply, true.

I wasn't there with John when he followed Jesus around the dusty roads of Galilee, but after decades of walking with Jesus I can say with the beloved disciple:

"That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled of the Word of life, (for the life was manifested and we have seen it, and bear witness) ... declare we unto you, that you also may have fellowship with us, and truly our fellowship is with the father and with his son, Jesus'' ( 1 John 1:1-3).