God Must Laugh

This was a fantastic question from PF last Sunday. We had a small group because it was so cold, but I didn’t want the rest of you to miss out on the good conversation. So here’s a quick summary as best I can remember it.

“How do we know if we really believe?”

First off, let’s admit that we don’t believe perfectly. No one does, not even in the Bible. The first example that comes to mind is this story. The key line is “I do believe; help my unbelief.” This person speaking to Jesus had the guts to admit that faith and doubt were both alive in him but that he wanted to believe. So step one is to admit that we’ve got doubts and beliefs at the same time and that’s ok.

Step 2? Another Bible story.This one say that we will be judged not on what we say or think, but on what we have done for “the least of these”. Who are the least? That’s a whole ‘nother blog post. For now, just get your head around this:

What you do shows what you believe.

Do you act like a follower of Jesus? Do you love God and love others? Do you care for “the least”? Then you are a believer, whether you’re sure of anything or not. Do you behave like you are the most important person in the world? Then in your deepest heart, you don’t believe in God because God is love.

Don’t freak out! That doesn’t mean you go to hell if you’re mean to your sibling. We’ve already established that everyone has belief and doubt in them at the same time, right? Hear the good news in this, and stop searching for bad news. Within most every person you meet there is some spark of love. Even in the most messed up, angriest, meanest people there is some place or moment in their life where they put others first.

That means there is always hope, even for messed-up, kinda-sorta, trying-to-believe, but-not-really-getting-it believers like us. And it means that same hope is available even to the people we don’t think deserve it.