What have my experiences led me to believe?
What we believe is often shaped by family, culture, education and the people around us. It may also be shaped by moments of prayer, wonder, grief, love or a sense that there is more to life than what we can see.
Our experiences of religion can be especially powerful. Some people have found comfort, belonging and a deeper faith. Others have experienced pressure, disappointment, hypocrisy or questions that were never properly answered.
It can help to separate these experiences from the larger question of what is true. A painful experience of religion does not necessarily mean that God is absent. In the same way, a powerful spiritual feeling does not by itself tell us how that experience should be understood.
You might ask what you genuinely believe now, what attracts you towards faith, what causes resistance and which questions still remain unresolved. Your experiences explain where you are beginning, but they do not have to decide the direction you take or where it leads.
Christians believe that our past experiences, whether positive or painful, do not have to determine our future. Through Jesus, we can find forgiveness, healing and a new understanding of what we have lived through, while the good within our past can be strengthened and given a deeper purpose.
They believe that, with the help of the Holy Spirit, following Jesus can lead us into a more loving, hopeful and purposeful way of life. Our past can become the starting point for new experiences of God, healthier relationships and becoming more fully the people he created us to be.
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