It's All About Belief

It’s always about belief.

From the moment I first picked up a pen and began to write, belief has has been the backdrop, and often the centerpiece.  

When I write stories, whether they are about robots, romance, or rock n roll, they are always told against a backdrop of belief.

When I go to work at my advertising job, telling stories that make customers connect emotionally with products, it’s about belief.

When I struggle with friends, family, and even strangers online about politics and how we as a society choose to live and use our common resources, it’s about belief.

When I go to my church, where I work as a sound tech, and sit apart in my sound booth, listening to every note and nuance of a sermon or a hymn to make sure it lands just right in the ear of the hearer, it’s about belief.

When I wrestle with truth in the quiet spaces in-between, it's about belief. 

What do we believe, my heart asks. Why do we believe it? Is it real, true, good?

How do those beliefs affect how we see, how we live, how we die, how we are remembered?

How do others come to believe what they do? How do tell them they are wrong, if they are just as convinced as we are? Is there room for all of our beliefs.  

At the beginning and at the end, I believe.

In what, and why, and its impact, these are the subject of this series.

There are some who say our beliefs are not for public discussion—“religion” is among the topics not to bring up over a polite dinner.

For as much joy, comfort, and inspiration as religious beliefs provide for many, religious conflicts have also brought tremendous heartache, strife, even full-blown war upon this earth. For that reason alone, many would argue we should just keep our beliefs to ourselves.

In fact, some say there’s so little evidence for believing anything other than what we see, hear, and touch right here and now, that we should let go of our supernatural beliefs altogether.

But our beliefs are so important to how we live, individually, and as a society—our hopes, fears, and imperatives guiding us at every step—that I believe they must be brought into the light of day and examined.

For all their beauty, and for all of their flaws.

I invite you to join in this examination with me.

I can’t keep quiet any longer.