Welcome to the Kindred Spirit Way—where we strive to discover spiritual truth... If you're not interested in a greater and deeper understanding of life, this page is not for you.  However... if you want to find peace, overcome depression and make the world a better place, perhaps it is. What's important to understand is that spiritual truth is the same for everyone, regardless of the faith you follow...or don't follow.

Is There A God?

    Today there are a large number of people who believe that God does not exist.  And, I must concede that they have a good point for not believing—the least valid being the question, "If God exists, why does he allow people to starve, or terrorists to kill," etc. There is no doubt God is certainly very difficult to pin down, to put your finger on, or to say, "Ah, there You are!  I found you at last!"

    I'm the first to admit that it would be wonderful to pray and get all our requests answered.  Unfortunately it doesn't work that way—how can it?  It only takes a little thought to realize that God has other children and that what you what you are praying for may hurt someone else—or be in conflict with what they're praying for.  For example: You've applied for a job and have been interviewed.  Then you go home and pray for that job, but so are a dozen or more other applicants...whose prayer does God answer?

    The natural follow-up question is, "If God doesn't give me what I pray for, why pray?  In fact, why believe?"

    This type of logic creates atheists.  And, sadly, it's logical.  So, why do so many of us still believe? 

   And, the answer is only that there's something in us that pulls us, directs us, leads us and keeps us from not believing; it's an urge that we can't quite get our minds around.  Call it superstition, but I believe it's more.  After all, what about all the unexplained stuff that happens, but is only noticed by those who are observant, such as the following true tale that I was fortunate enough to be the observer:

   

    One evening after the Immanuel Methodist Church potluck, Gloria (not her real name) was cleaning up in the church kitchen.  As she washed the dishes amid the hubbub and hoopla in the kitchen, she took off her ring and set it on the splashboard. 

   After she finished washing, she went to put her ring back on, but it wasn’t there.  A frantic search ensued, but to no avail.  The ring, it seems, had simply vanished into thin air.

   During service the following Sunday she asked that the ring be put on the prayer list.  As she put it, “It’s not the financial value of the ring that’s so important, it’s the emotional and sentimental value.  It means so much to me.”

   Two weeks passed and it was once again time for the Thursday evening potluck.  After eating, a group of men were standing around talking prior to leaving.  Fred, Gloria’s father, was standing in a doorway separating two rooms when someone asked, “Did Gloria ever find her ring?”

   As he started to say, “No,” I saw something fall from the doorway he was under, bounce off his head and land on the floor with a metallic ringing.  

    “What in the world?” he said as he bent down and picked up the ring.

   I was both amazed and thrilled.  But no one else seemed to have noticed that anything out of the ordinary had happened.  Maybe it’s because I was outside the group, looking on; I saw the ring fall, heard it land and watched as he bent over and picked it up.

   Maybe.  

    But I suspect that people are (for some reason) afraid to acknowledge a miracle when it happens—and this was one, if only because of the timing—it was just too perfect for anything else.  After all, how did the ring land on his head from above?  Why did it fall just as he was asked about it?

   Miracles are always only temporary.  Though the ring was found, it could be lost again.  A person gets miraculously healed, but they’ll get sick again. Lazarus was brought back from the dead, but then he died again later.

   Miracles strengthen our faith as believers.  Those who do not believe are never convinced.  Miracles are not a cure all.  Even Jesus bringing Lazarus back from the dead was temporary.  

   When faith is strong, miracles happen more constantly.  When faith is weak, they still happen to demonstrate positively those things which are beyond us.

    Many miracles have happened in my life that I didn’t recognize until years later.  Once I did, I was thrilled.  Maybe that’s why I recognized what happened at the potluck when no one else seemed to.  

    

    Once again bringing us back to the question, "Is there a god?"

    The only answer I can give is this: the majority of the world believes in something called, "God."  

    If you already believe, then God is an actuality; you believe because He's working in your life and you are spiritually approachable by God.

    If you don't believe, then the actuality of God in your life is non-existent.  Not because God doesn't exist, but because He can't touch you because you block Him out.

    To God the nonbeliever has become the non-existent...

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