Welcome to Gaia! ::

I was speaking with a young man I know the other day. Now, this kid has had it extremely rough. Out of respect for his privacy I won't go into detail, but nobody should have to have lived through what he's lived through, and is still living through.

But we got to trading stories. It's kind of cathartic to talk to someone who has had it as bad, or in some cases worse, than you. Someone who reacts with something other than horror and/or pity when you talk about some of your darkest hours.

Eventually he asked me if I believed in God, and I told him that I did. He was surprised, and asked me howI could believe in an all-loving, all-powerful being when I'd lived the life that I'd lived. At first I sort of stumbled around with things like free will, and "we can't possibly know God's plan," until he looked me dead in the eyes and said, "Stop filling in the blanks with cliches and just tell me, no bullsh*t, why you believe in God."

And I said, "Because you're alive, and I'm alive, and we're sitting here talking to each other right now, and the odds of that happening by random chance alone are so infinitesimally small."

And he just said, "I guess that makes sense." I don't know that I made a believer out of him then and there, but I feel pretty good about the answer I gave. It was honest, at least. And I've never been that good at fielding that sort of question.

Anyway, how do you usually deal with that type of question/discussion?

As a good friend of mine says, "I love hitting rock bottom, because then there's nowhere to go but up." 3nodding