To Exist

I believe in God.  More precisely, I believe in the God described in the Bible.

I had a thought which hit me while I was in church this past Sunday which has been rumbling around in my mind ever since.  It has become a mud puddle.

When someone asked God who he was, his answer seemed a bit strange: "I AM."  Just in case that wasn't entirely clear, God was kind enough to clarify: "I AM who I AM."  (Ah...now we are getting somewhere!)

Okay, God, you are wanting to tell us that you are...that you exist.  And not only that, that your very name implies that YOU ARE.  Nothing more than that really; but nothing less either (which is a lot).

Before I ever came into existence, God existed.  While I exist, he still exists.  Once I stop existing, the dude will still abide.

I've never done drugs before, but I've always thought that when one gets high there is this fleeting moment of clarity when things come together and you get a glimpse of ultimate truth and you remind yourself to not forget this one important thing when you come back to reality.  Well, I experienced something akin to that when I was in church and I thought about God naming himself I AM.  (Most of us don't get to name ourselves, but God was not so unlucky.)  If I may be so bold to paraphrase God's own description of himself, he chose to name himself EXISTENCE.  He exists.  And because he exists, we exist and everything that has ever existed has existed.

One of the more popular philosophies of the day is atheism.  People like Sam Harris, Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens (RIP) are celebrities who have become famous by denying that God exists.  I have friends who have embraced this ideology and thrown off what they consider to be the crippling yoke of religion/faith.

But I do believe that EXISTENCE exists.  I believe there is a purpose in the randomness.  I believe that everything that exists points to EXISTENCE.  As I type these words, I am reminding myself that He is.  I so easily forget and spend so much of my time (existence?) as if he isn't.  But he is.  It's his name.  Why did he name himself that?  He does't want us to forget.  I guess I was reminded again on Sunday.  He is.

"And that has made all the difference."  (Final line of Robert Frost's The Road Not Taken)