Degree of Belief

The  New York Times ran an opinion piece about  praying to God that you don’t believe in. This Sunday, The Times, ran some very well-thought out responses to the opinion piece in it’s “Letters to the Editor” section. I won’t try to repeat the opinion piece or the reactions here, but I will say if you do read them it is likely to provoke thought and discussion, as it did in my home.

I’m not sure any of us have the exact same view or understanding of God as anyone else. That’s certainly the case when you start to discuss those tough issues such as God’s role in our every day life, why bad things happen, and what happens when we leave our earthly bodies. The list of questions we each have is very long, and the list of certain answers is very short, if there are any answers at all.

One thing that is for certain is that we all have doubts. God wants us to doubt, explore, study, pray, and seek answers. Very few of us have what I call a “Lazuras moment” — an event so profound that the event overcomes any doubts. For the rest of us, belief  comes through experience, study, conversation with our neighbors, prayer, and yes, that mysterious element that God plants in each of our  souls — faith.

I apologize to my dear friend Luis who always gave me words of comfort on this subject, that I am about to misquote.

“Believe as much as you can, and that is good enough for God.”

About the author

Webb Hubbell is the former Associate Attorney General of The United States. His novels, When Men Betray, Ginger Snaps, A Game of Inches, The Eighteenth Green, and The East End are published by Beaufort Books and are available online or at your local bookstore. When Men Betray won one of the IndieFab awards for best novel in 2014. Ginger Snaps and The Eighteenth Green won the IPPY Awards Gold Medal for best suspense/thriller. His latest, “Light of Day” will be on the bookstands soon.

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