Why I Believe

I do believe in God. In a day when belief is hard (for some of us) and the road is difficult (for some of us), the end of the day arrives. At the end of the day, when the world is hushed from its feverish pitch of grasping at straws, there comes an ominous silence. And time to reflect.

I believe in God, not because I have scientific evidence, nor because I'm a master of puppets, nor because I have a wild imagination. I believe in God, not because I feel God in my heart, nor because I get telepathic signals, nor because I'm afraid not to believe.

I believe in God because there is love.

Love is all around us. It can be seen if we set ourselves aside for a moment and really take a look.

By love, I'm not talking about a sticky, sappy emotion that only seeks to benefit the self, nor am I talking about romance and being swept off of the feet. By love, I mean a selfless and sacrificial service that seeks the good of the other. This love is a giving away of the self to others so that others can be placed in a position to give themselves away to others. But this love doesn't demand the love of the other in return.

This kind of love cannot be measured in a laboratory. But it can be seen. Here's one example.

Think of the woman whose husband has been stricken with Alzheimer's Disease. She gets out of bed every morning knowing that her day is going to be completely spent in caring for her husband. She bathes, dresses, and feeds him. She has to stay with him because he can't take care of himself.

She can't hop in the car and go see a movie. She can't go for a hairdo and a manicure. She can't go sit in a park and read a book. She can't go out for lunch.

Oh, wait... I take that back. She can do all of those things if she wanted to. But she doesn't because that would leave her husband to fend for himself, which he is incapable of doing. So she stays home with the man she married.

To us, it would look like this woman doesn't have much of a life. To her, she wouldn't have it any other way. Perhaps she has more of a life than do many of us, for her life is not centered on herself. She gives of herself so her husband can be safe. She is present with him. And she has no regrets.

That is love. There are countless other examples, but this love cannot be bottled or placed in a beaker. It can only be seen in and through what it does. But the love itself is unseen.

And that's why I believe in God-- because there is love. It's all the evidence that's necessary.

And the end of the day, love reigns supreme.