What is convincing ….to me

I was asked the basis on my confidence of my belief. In a nutshell, I like to relate this in three parts; the initiation, the maintenance and the testing.

Before I was introduced to the belief, I was a troubled youth. I hurt and disappointed my parents in my violent ways, stealing, cheating and gambling. Within me, the guilt and the despair of hurting the very people I love and who loves me. That had not been enough to turn me around.

When I was introduced to the teaching of God’s love and forgiveness through the bible in one particular instance, I responded. Although there was a fair bit of emotion at that moment, the greater joy was a year later when my parents remarked that they saw a total change in me after I started going to church. They did not know the conversion incidence. It was the joy of seeing the joy in my parent.  They even started to direct troubled kids to get help from me.

After this, the reading and study of the bible had been a constant part of my life. That is what can be seen from the outside. On the inside, I become more convinced of the reality of a living God who is active in my life (see blog about the accident). Although many people and Sunday’s sermon had helped, it was the authority of the Bible that these are measured against. I pegged my belief not on people or the churches, but the Bible. That was a journey of about forty years. The troubled youth had so far got a degree in engineering, a master of science, married and with children.

Since the last twenty years (and still doing), I had ventured out to explore other beliefs systems. It cannot be said to be comprehensive. Most people only hold lip service to a belief system, and there are many systems of beliefs. I read about their belief from their literature, and appreciated the honest interactions with some who valued their belief to go beyond superficialities. In this limited study, I analyze each belief’s answer (view) to the four questions of origin, ethics, meaning of life and destiny. I was willing to give each a best shot to the answer. I have found in this journey (so far), the bible had been the best to give a reasonable answer to each and that it also knitted them together as coherence whole.

Each of the above can be taken apart and be explained away with counter perspectives by some cleverness.  It is really personal, and only referenced to me. But for me, in parts and as a whole, it is real and convincing.