by Rob Drew

Created on: April 03, 2008

Some people believe fervently in God; others firmly deny that God exists. The Almighty, in His wisdom, chose to relieve me of my faith many years ago. Since then I've spent a lot of time trying to learn about life and to understand the world. I've encountered many sincere Christians and others, who generously offer to share their faith with me. They are intelligent, educated, experienced people, and yet they believe something that is obviously false to me. They believe that somewhere out there, and at the same time right in their own hearts, there exists a powerful spirit that loves them, and wants them to love Him.

I thought one of us had to be wrong. I denied God, and yet there was so much evidence that to these people He was real. In the end, I have had to repent my mistake, and have come to believe. My belief is perhaps a little strange, but it is sincere. Somehow, in a way I do not understand, God is real for some people and not for others. In fact, God is different for some people than for others. The Muslim God seems different from Yahweh, and even more different from Jesus. The Lutheran God sounds different from the Catholic God, and both are different from the Baptist God. Yet all these Gods are real, to the people who believe in them. Some people even think they are all the same one, or at least that some of them are.

So somehow, believing in God makes Him real for the believer. The person of faith can pray and talk to God, confident of an answer. We hear about this happening every day. It must be true. When such a person is lost, their God may show them the way. When they have sinned, their God can forgive them. There is no denying that this happens. A person who is forgiven looks and acts differently from one who is an unrepentant sinner. When some folks read the "word of God" they are often inspired to good works, or enabled to endure terrible hardship.

As an atheist, I have no explanation for this phenomenon, but I do believe it is real. It might be that somehow people create an idea of a perfect God in their minds; or perhaps being willing to believe enables people to perceive an invisible God in a mysterious way. This might be what some people mean by "inviting Jesus into their life". I don't experience either of these things myself. For a long time, I assumed that people who did were strange or just not very smart. I have to repent of those thoughts. I was wrong. It's as though I were blind or deaf, and so could not understand what people who

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