The Other Side

I’m going back through some old posts and updating information on the back end of my blog. I ran across this one that I originally posted in 2009 regarding my faith. After my post from Tuesday, I really needed to read this and be reminded of what I know in my heart. I thought I would share it with all of you.

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I’ve been getting a lot of questions lately about my beliefs. Not necessarily questioning me, but wondering why I believe the way I do. I have several friends that are non-believers and they seem to have a hard time comprehending why I believe the way I do.

In the past my answer as always been along the lines of, “Because.” I was saved at a very young age and it is kind of hard for me to put into words what I know to be true and why it is that I know it, but I’ve decided that I really need to come up with a better answer. Here it is:

Because I have come out on the other side.

And no, I don’t mean I’ve seen the white light or anything like that. What I mean is that I’ve faced the bad stuff, the tragedy, the hurt, the heartache, the hard times and I’ve come out on the other side of it.

I’ve had friends ask me how I can believe in God when so many bad things happen in the world. Well first of all I don’t believe that God causes bad things to happen, they just do. But I know that God uses those bad things to reward us, to shape us, to make us a better person when we come out on the other side. And I don’t mean heaven. I mean when you come out on the other side of the bad thing you will be rewarded, you will be closer to God, you will be a better person if you have allowed God to pull you through the bad thing.

I’m probably not explaining it very well so let me quote a sermon I heard one time, “God is in the circumstance.” First you have to kind of read it like I think it:

God. Is in. the Circumstance.

Now you really have to think about what this means. No matter how bad things are, God is right there with you in the bad. He is there to support you, to stand by you, and to help you through so that when you come out on the other side the glory of the survival can go to Him. And because you allowed Him to do all these things for you He rewards you even more. And the worse the bad is, the greater the glory to God and the greater the reward to you for relying on him to pull you through.

For those of you shaking your head and wondering what in the world I’m talking about, I have examples:

• David and I had a very hard time conceiving Cady. As a matter of fact we tried for seven years with no luck. In those seven years we moved to a new town and I took a job that had me constantly away from home. This was a huge strain on our marriage and things got worse and worse and worse. I was ready to walk away, but David stopped me (see he really is the smart one). We got counseling, we started going back to church again, and we got back on the path we were supposed to be on. In less than a year we were expecting Cady. This was something our doctors had told us would never happen. But it did. We believed in God through the bad time, trusted in Him to pull us through, and he rewarded us when we came out on the other side.
• I had a really great job when Cady was born. Great for my “career” that is. Not so great for a family because I had to travel ALL the time. And I mean ALL, every week. I had decided that was not going to happen now that I had her and I told my employer that I couldn’t travel anymore. They told me that they didn’t have a place for me if I couldn’t. So I quit. Just like that. No second thoughts. Just quit. I knew that God would take care of us, and he did. We moved back home, I found a job very quickly, we bought a house and the note was actually less than we were paying on our other house. We trusted God, and he provided for us.

These are just two examples, but I have more, as do a lot of my friends. Tons and tons. So I guess what I’m saying is that I know God is real because He has fulfilled His promise. He takes care of me and my family. Period. I know these things came from God. I just know. I don’t really have another way to say it.

Now, what exactly is that I believe, well basically it is this:

I believe that religion is destroying Christianity in this country.

I believe that God is real and has an individual relationship with each of us.

I believe that God loves the sinner when he can’t love himself.

I believe that Jesus was born of a virgin mother, died on the cross and rose from the dead on the third day.

I believe in a heaven and a hell.

And I believe that there is only one way to get there.

If you have any questions about this, please leave a comment with your email address. I would be happy to discuss it with you more, or to point you in the direction of someone more eloquent and knowledgeable than I am.

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I don’t judge people for believing differently from me. Please extend me the same courtesy.