Vocation

In my conversation with Soren last week, we talked about what I believe in—the core fundamental aspects of my faith, the things that matter to me. I’ve been thinking about it since then and it is so much easier for me to name the things I don’t believe; I can frame my faith in terms of what other people believe and how that differs from my own beliefs, but it’s hard to construct my faith on my own terms. So I want to compile a working list of what I believe, my own personal credo.

First, I believe that people are inherently good. But also that we make mistakes—we make mistakes a LOT. I believe that God’s love for us is so vibrant and pure that it wipes all those mistakes away. I believe that all people are connected to each other and that we need to honor that connection by taking care of and respecting each other. I believe in the baptism of rain on a fall day and the communion of food shared with friends. I believe that science and religion complement each other, that God speaks into our silences and blooms into our empty spaces, and that the Holy Spirit lives in music and mountains, hugs and rivers, laughter and tears. I believe that worship requires a community and community requires forgiveness and forgiveness requires grace. I believe that God takes many forms and that the times when we think God has abandoned us are the times when God is suffering right alongside us. I believe that love is the greatest and most important commandment and that if we don’t love each other, the other rules and commandments have no meaning. I believe that doubt is the strongest form of faith and that vocation is God’s call to use our passions to address the world’s needs. I believe that prayer is a conversation, worship is a relationship and scripture is a promise.

Above all, I believe that God loves, a love that is freely given, a love that we can never avoid or escape or ignore—a love that changes us, a love that frees us. A love that makes us believe.