A man stopped me after worship on Sunday and said, “You’re an optimist, aren’t you?” We’d been in an adult education class together earlier in the morning and I must’ve said something that gave him that impression of me. “I do believe that one of the most important things our faith gives us is hope” I said, “ so, in that way, I suppose I am an optimist.” His question has stayed with me throughout the week.
One of the questions we were considering in the adult ed class was Nietzsche’s statement “God is dead.” While the existence of God isn’t what Nietzsche was commenting on, his statement does beg this question. Curiously (or not), this has never been an issue for me. It’s always been easy for me to accept the existence of God. This is only a problem when I’m with Christians for whom it’s very important that we all have a road to Damascus experience in which we first became a “believer.” How do I tell my faith story when I don’t speak this language or have this experience?
What I realized one morning this week as I drove into work is that my spiritual journey hasn’t been about belief, it’s been about trust. I don’t identify with the struggle to keep believing in God, but I do identify with a journey of trust. So, for what it’s worth, that was my road to Damascus experience this week.
