As a Christian I feel desperately sorry for people who don't have a relationship with God. On so many levels. One of my Christian friends doesn't believe in hell as a literal place. She said that she believes that hell is actually the absence of God - people who are Christians will spend eternity with God, as He promised, and those who aren't, won't. And to be in an eternal state of separate from, or lacking God, is itself hell.
And I thought that this is true in life as well. Humans aren't meant to be separate from God. There is a God shaped hole inside all of us, and we desperately try to fill it with so many things. Friends, food, drugs, possessions, alcohol, career achievements, etc etc etc. But until we have a real relationship with God, we can't know real peace or real happiness. It's hellish to try to go through life without God. Looking back now, I don't know how I found purpose in life without God, or how I managed to get through the hard bits.
It's not just about having faith that everything will be okay and knowing that this world isn't our real home, although this is a huge comfort.
For me, it's about the knowing and understanding that we are so loved, beyond anything that we could ever imagine. It's about the fact that a God so powerful that He created galaxies, oceans, mountains, vast rainforests, etc, loved us so much that He voluntarily suffered a miserable life, being rejected and hated by the people He loved. He voluntarily suffered a death that was excruciating, humiliating, and degrading, all from His love for us.
And despite His great power, He still loves us enough on an individual and personal level that cares so deeply about the small details of our lives, He wants a personal relationship with us, He wants to hear us tell him our fears and our worries and our successes and our thanks. He stays with us always, listens to our prayers, and answers them.
I have always suffered with massive anxiety and one day I just couldn't cope with it anymore. I remember crying and asking God to show me that He was with me, and that He loved me, because it was a really dark day where I just felt so alone and couldn't feel His presence at all. At the time, I was living in a country where Christianity is not accepted, and while there are Christians, they are persecuted, and it's all very underground. I had been there for years and had never seen anyone publicly acknowledge or speak about God. But after that prayer, I went downstairs to the shop and a woman who had been quietly shopping when I approached took one look at me and, as if she recognised me, came towards me and was telling me with urgency and happiness that Jesus loves me, and that God is with us. When I left, she went back to her shopping. She wasn't just preaching to everyone, it seems that message was only for me.
When I got home I cried with happiness because that was the first time I had the realisation that the same God who created literally EVERYTHING loved me so much that He gave me what I most needed, when I most needed it.
Similarly, when a man from our church was rushed to hospital with a life-threatening condition, and things were looking really bleak, his wife asked us to pray for him as he went into surgery. We all did, and when he woke up the doctor was astounded that not only had he survived the surgery, but he seemed entirely healthy. Even the symptoms and side effects of the illness, that he should have had to live with for the rest of his life if, by some miracle he managed to survive, had completely gone. He was completely cured. I find that amazing too. That a God who is literally everywhere and in all things still hears and answers and heals individuals.
I feel sorry for people who are closed off to God because until you can open yourself up to God and accept His desire to have a relationship with you, you will miss beautiful and powerful things like this. You will miss this overwhelming sense of love which is far beyond any human love and which even as Christians we can't fully comprehend. It's so hard to explain to atheists because I know that this probably sounds mental. I would have thought it was a bit mental before I found a personal relationship with God and experienced it for myself.
But at some point, when you know God personally, atheists sound a bit crazy too 😁For me, hearing someone say they don't believe God exists sounds as insane as hearing someone say that, say, the Queen doesn't exist, or something. Like, how can anyone actually believe that there is no God? How can someone think that this perfectly functioning world came from absolutely nowhere? How can anyone believe in creation without a creator? But the things that make me know God with the most certainty are the things that have happened in my PERSONAL relationship with Him, things that can't be objectively proven (or even clearly explained!) to anyone but to me mean the whole world. And I think that's how it is for all Christians.
I really, really wish everyone could experience a relationship with God like they deserve to.