I BELIEVE STATEMENT (faith statement for church)

I believe that God is above all unconditional love. A good parent knows there's nothing your child could do to make you stop loving them. You allow them to make their own choices to lead their own lives to have free will gently guiding them along the way. You hold them when they cry or suffer you give them advice and are always available when they cry out for you. You appreciate when they love you back and it pains you when they grow distant or even say hateful or hurtful things but you let it go and love them no less because they are yours. You may even be willing to die for your child. God's love is like this but even greater. Greater than we can possibly grasp. Some of us could die for our children who could sacrifice themselves or their child for a stranger for a sinner for the worst among us for every single one of us? Jesus died for us because we are his.

I believe in developing a daily personal relationship with God. I believe God wants to be involved in all that we do. All day everyday not just Sunday. I believe in an ongoing two way conversation not a one way prayer. I believe in a living God that speaks with each of us though too often we have forgotten how to listen. I believe in an ever present omnipresent God who is with us around us and in us. I believe we are souls here in a physical body for a little while. From dust we came to dust we shall return.

I have attended this church for a few years now so many of you have seen my face and know my name but may not know much more about me. Sometimes I am here sometimes I am absent. This is not a coincidence as I struggle with a severe mental illness. There are times when I am quite capable and present and other times when organizing myself to attend to the very basics of life is an impossibility. The times between these extremes is a spectrum I navigate on a daily basis. But I do not blame God for this. I consider it to be part of my constitution part of how he intended me to be to live and to think and that he makes no mistakes there is some purpose in it for myself and others such as the blind man who Jesus said was not born blind because of sin but to show the glory of God. Nor do I blame God for the other negative experiences I have had in my life. I, as all of us, have been hurt by others I do not blame God as I believe that hurt people hurt people and people have free will. God will not give us more than we can handle and he wont always pull us out of the belly of the wale like Jonah until we have withstood our three days. As Christians we are not exempt from suffering we will have storms it is a part of living and it doesn't mean that God is not love or doesn't love us because he doesn't deliver us from all of it he will give us the strength to endure the storms. And as suffering and illness is a part of the human condition I ask myself in difficult times rather than why me it is try me. Because if God is with me who can be against me? God is my strength and my refuge. I have my issues and struggles and so does every single one of us. When I have a difficulty in life I ask myself if not me then who? If it has to happen to someone whom else would I wish it upon. Would I give my neighbor my struggles? Of course not. These struggles are for me they are part of my path part of what God has chosen for me. His grace is sufficient for me and my specific set of storms as is his strength grace and mercy sufficient for those each of you have been and do go through. It is in these times that our faith is lost or grows. It is easy to pray and praise and serve and worship God when life is easy we are well and things are well when it all goes astray we have a choice to make. To draw closer to God through faith or pull away. I believe we have an opportunity in life's difficulties to draw closer in our relationship with God and stronger in our faith. It is in the test that the testimony is made. I believe I've been blessed and I'm grateful for this.

I share these things about myself not because this is about me but because I believe we have an obligation as Christians to share our faults and vulnerabilities. I am aware I am a mess I am aware I could do better I am aware I sin. So does everyone. Isn't it humbling and all the more awe inspiring to realize that God was willing to send his only son to die for our transgressions when we acknowledge our own imperfection. We are all a work in progress. And God so loved me he died for me before I ever even attempted to become a better person before I ever knew of God and Jesus before I ever tried he made the ultimate sacrifice for me that level of love is incomprehensible and incomparable so I must be important. There is no sinless perfect person the only one there was is Jesus, and though it be our duty as Christians to attempt to be as Jesus was, we all fall short. God has taught me in this to love everyone. To be nonjudgmental, accepting, and forgiving of all people. To love all people profoundly. Because I recognize how profoundly he loves me is the same extent to how profoundly he loves every single person that exists. That means they must be important and valuable regardless of any and all appearances that their sin list may be different than my own makes no difference because I have my own sin. I want to be a better person a better Christian not because I should be or need to be to earn Gods love. God loved each of us so much he died for us already. I want to be better because he loves me unconditionally this and his continual forgiveness it moves me to want to make him proud and the sacrifice Jesus made not be in vein in my life as I love others and serve the best I can manage within the constraints I am given and the gifts I am given. Each of us has a unique set of each of these constraints and gifts and so our service to others appears differently some to the church some to volunteer some to hold a door for a stranger or shovel a neighbors driveway. We are to serve. And that is why I am up here giving this I believe statement not because I am outspoken but because I was asked to do so and it is my duty to serve in ways that I am able regardless how I feel and in this I am able or God would not have placed the request to do so in front of me. Even Moses was intimidated by what God asked him to do telling God that he was unable but God, like a good parent, often sees the possibilities in us and for us more accurately than we see them for our selves. I believe Gods plan for my life is better than my own.

I believe love is the greatest commandment and our highest calling. I believe the people around us at any given moment are not put their by accident but by God. And we should be on the look out for guidance on this and our purpose in it. I believe I witness god on a daily basis in synchronicity coincidence intuition that still small voice inside of us interactions with others the world the water I drink the food I eat and the breath that flows in and out of my lungs. I believe God gives us his kingdom on earth not just in heaven if we learn how to receive it.

I believe we are in a fallen world and I myself have a will and walk in wrong directions and need correction. I believe all things can and will be used for good even the bad things can be and is used by God every step. Including those that have seemed wrong or beyond my understanding. One can ask God for understanding or seek the bible for answers but I personally don't question too many things too deeply it only leads me to anxiety and confusion which are not of God and it strains my faith. I Trust God. It all comes together in the end we have the story, it has been written. I believe the bible is a book of magic and we are served best when we learn from it.

I have experienced God as my father, my healer, my constant companion, my teacher of all good growth and how to and what is love. He is my rest and reassurance he is my endurance he is every kind person I have had the good fortune of coming to know or pass he is the roof over my head he is my health and my hope he is my provider he is the purring of my cat the sunshine the rain he is my reason my direction and my destination

I believe that, you may know this one, God is Good All the time.