First Steps

Before I had any belief in God, I learned something of what I was supposed to believe about God.  Perhaps, it is like that for most of us.  As a child I learned what I would later believe at the end of my Mother's finger as it moved on the page where "The Apostle's Creed" was written.  My eyes followed the movement of her finger on the open page of the hymnal just like it did when she taught me to read the words of the songs one verse at a time instead of starting at the top and finishing at the bottom as was done with everything else I had learned to read.  The creed started out, "I believe in God the Father..."  At some unremembered moment I no longer needed the page as it was stored permanently in my memory.

 

What we believe about God is not something imposed upon our mind and heart in a lesson like some mathematical table or a chronological history lesson.  What we believe is learned not so much from books as it is by what we experience in our hearts.  What we believe comes to us as the Holy Spirit begins to work in our lives.  For most of us there is no starting point for this work of the Spirit.  It is as if it has no beginning and one day we suddenly are aware we are in this ongoing stream of spiritual life that has been flowing since way before we were born.

 

When I started believing in God, I am not sure.  What I do know is that I did and that I continue to believe in Him.  Maybe my belief is not quite as orderly and as structured as "The Apostle's Creed," but it is no less significant for me.  Actually, as I think about my belief in God, I must confess that it is a rather messy thing filled with unanswered questions, confusing thoughts, and an open-endedness that is never quite complete.  Still, what I know I know.  I know I believe in God.  I cannot imagine life without this one single foundational stone.