A friend recently wrote the following sentences in an email to me: “I want God to exist, but my mind keeps asking how it's possible. Unlike you, I haven't had an experience of the presence of God.”
I think we have all experienced the presence of God. For years, I too couldn’t recognize God. I would explain away every divine moment by rationalizing it as either my imagination, indigestion, or a hot flash! I still do this a lot, partly because I’m a bit embarrassed and want to fit in. As long as I express skepticism, I’m more likely to be considered an intellectual and not some religious freak.
I could recount many different incidents from my life and point out God’s handiwork. Immediately after each occurrence, I sense, at a gut level, that this is of God. Yet later, I analyze and scrutinize it until my conviction dissipates into a vague mist.
After 20 some years of being around my husband, I’ve learned to recognize his handwriting. If you showed me a sample of his writing, I could say with a high level of certainty that it was his. Now, if you asked me if I could be a 100% sure that it wasn’t forged by an expert, I would start doubting my initial assessment. In the same way, we can learn to recognize God’s handiwork, to a certain degree, the more time we spend with Him. Yet, if we try to analyze every case as if it were a geometric proof, naturally our belief would start wavering.
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