I started this whole thing, (Why We Believe) and then I sat back and read everyone else’s articles as they came in about why they believe, and I started to overthink things. See, I’m neuropspicy, and that (overthinking) can sneak up and happen when I least expect it. But believe it or not, I started to also realize in reading so many articles, that it’s also just one of a million reasons why I believe in God. My neurospicy brain is uniquely mine, uniquely me, and that is a gift. I could have gone down many paths in my life, but I chose the path toward God. I surrendered my unique way of thinking, doing, and seeing to Him, and He has taken it to a level I never knew was possible. My First Supernatural Encounter When I was younger, I didn’t have a good childhood. I was severely abused by a Christian mother who used Scripture against me at every turn. But one day, something happened to me. I was about ten years old. I remember the lawn, the dandelions, the warmth, the love, and the feeling of being shielded. I had a supernatural encounter with God before I understood the complexities of what that meant, the way I do now. And I will never forget it. When I say shield, I mean it literally. From that day forward, there was a shield around my mind; looking back, I can see it in everything. I had already been through so much at that point in my life, and I would go on to suffer more at the hands of others and my own stupid decisions, but my mind, who I am, how I think, my love of rabbit holes, and my drive to understand, search, and seek were protected. Curiosity and Questions That is how everything started for me with my walk with God. My mind. My relentless curiosity. I asked the weird questions. I explored the strange ideas. I believed all sorts of things that I have since learned were wrong, and my salvation was not any less real then than it is now. People act like being wrong about a belief is the end of the world. It is not. When God sees fit to teach you something new, He is saying you are ready to learn, not that you were going to hell for what you believed in yesterday. Anyway, back to my brain. If you ever met me in person, you would really see it, trust me. I am aware of my personality and my strange curiosity now, mostly because the people around me hated it. They hated the questions. They hated that I challenged what I was told to believe. They hated that I refused to just go along. But I am who I am, and I am finally comfortable with that. Science Can Only Explain So Much Science can explain neurons, trauma, and the wiring of the brain, but it cannot explain who I am at my core. It cannot explain my uniqueness. It cannot explain my past or who I have become despite it. I had every rational and logical reason to turn from God, handed to me on a platter by mankind, and I did at one point. But what science can’t explain is the search and drive in all of us to seek out a higher power. Who I am is what brought me to God. I went on a search to understand, a search that spanned my teens, and twenties. I used my mind and that innate drive to find the truth, and I found Him every time. I went through phases where I tried to build my own versions of Christianity. I blended in witchcraft and the occult, but it was not the truth. I knew that. My mind knew that. So I walked away. I blended doctrines. I took pieces of what churches taught and what others told me to believe, but none of it felt right. Again, my mind knew something wasn't right. It connects dots in a way most people do not understand. I have been told that when I am discussing something, my face will go still for a moment, and then suddenly everything clicks, and it just comes pouring out of me. My mind took me out of what I was told, what I felt and what I was lead to believe and right into the Bible, that is why I refused to claim any definition other then either Bible-based Christian or follower of Christ. Cannot Be Explained Away That cannot be explained away by mere science. I have a personality, a moral compass, a deep breed curiosity to understand, and a unique consciousness that all point to a Creator, a unique Creator. No two humans are alike. No two think the same. No two act the same. That is diversity on a level we cannot fully comprehend. Think about that. All of humanity is unique. Science can describe parts of it, but it cannot fully explain it. Only a Creator can. The day He spoke to me, the day I felt Him shield my mind and pour His love into me, can never be explained away. Not only did He die so I could live, but He also died so my abusers could live too. Only God can renew a heart and mind in such a way that someone can say that, understand that, accept that, and be grateful that those people still have a chance to turn to Him and sit at His table. Why I Believe So this is my neurospicy ramble of why I believe. But I believe for a million other reasons too. This is just one of them, and what God led me to share. He created our minds. He saved mine that day in a way no person ever could, and that alone is a marvelous reason to believe. © 2026 Jane Isley. Want more content like this? Explore more articles in the Why We Believe series.

Imagine leaving everything behind: your source of security, your stable family life, and your reputation. You do this to follow a man who claimed to be Divine, a man who called himself “The Way, the Truth, and the Life.” You saw him as someone who did not lie. You saw him as a powerful healer and a redeemer. Yet, that same person ends up not just dead, but crucified. He is humiliated and tortured by the very people you secretly hoped he would overthrow. This was the man who promised eternal life, but now he is a corpse in a guarded tomb. The Human Reaction The normal human reaction would be to see this person as a fraud. You would likely return to your old life, filled with the bitter regret of having given up everything for nothing. This is precisely the reaction recorded in the earliest accounts of the followers of Christ. Upon his death, his closest disciples did not wait long to return to their trades. Their assurance was gone. They did not have the luxury of overthinking because they had to survive. They went back to the boats and the nets. The Problem of the Shift Now, imagine those same people (who had already moved on) becoming so convinced just a few days later that this man was exactly who he claimed to be. In a time and place where making such a claim led to social exile or a brutal death, they did not back down. If these were merely “crazy” people, they likely would not have had the grounded presence of mind to return to work when he died. They were rational enough to know when a cause was lost. Yet, many of them claimed to have seen him again. Early Christian tradition and historical accounts suggest that these men no longer found their lives worth living for themselves. They were people with families and futures, yet they accepted a mission that offered them nothing but earthly suffering. The Sincerity of the Witness A core pillar of this argument is the nature of the sacrifice. While it is true that many people throughout history have died for false doctrines, they almost always do so because they believe those doctrines to be true. There is a fundamental difference between dying for a sincere belief and dying for a deliberate, known fabrication. If the Resurrection were a product of intentional deception, the disciples would have known they were lying. While critics might suggest memory distortion or group reinforcement, these psychological factors usually apply to subjective feelings rather than claims of physical, repeated interactions with a person who was publicly executed. If the core of their message was a conscious fraud, it is nearly impossible to explain why an entire group would face systemic execution for a lie that offered them no earthly benefit. Engaging the Counter-Arguments Critics offer several categories of counter-arguments to explain this transformation without a miracle. While these deserve study, they often face significant internal hurdles: The Hallucination Theory: This suggests the disciples suffered mass hallucinations. While “group visionary experiences” are documented in some religious contexts, they are not well-supported as a consistent explanation for multiple, detailed, and shared physical experiences across different contexts and locations. The Stolen Body Theory: This claims the disciples stole the body. This fails the test of human motivation. It is highly improbable that a group of fearful men would steal a body, hide it, and then willingly face execution for a “miracle” they knew to be a hoax. The Legendary Theory: This argues that the stories were exaggerated over decades. However, scholars have traced early creeds (such as the one found in 1 Corinthians 15) to within a few years of the event itself. This timeline is far too short for a complete mythological rewrite to take hold, especially while original eyewitnesses were still alive to challenge false claims. The Problem of Presupposition Much of the skepticism surrounding this event is rooted in philosophical naturalism. This is the pre-assumption that the natural world is all that exists and that miracles are, by definition, impossible. If you start with the rule that “miracles cannot happen,” then any explanation (no matter how unlikely) will seem more logical than a resurrection. However, if God’s existence cannot be disproven, then “impossibility” should not be the assumption going into this investigation. If the existence of a Creator remains a possibility, then we must look at the evidence with an open mind rather than a pre-determined conclusion. When we look at the raw human data (the sudden, radical, and costly transformation of these men), a physical resurrection becomes a compelling explanation. It is an explanation that cannot be easily dismissed without appealing to personal assumptions rather than historical evidence. These men did not find their lives worth living for a lie. They found something they were willing to stake everything on. © 2026 Mikiyas Asatake. Want more content like this? Explore more articles in the Why We Believe series. Press Ctrl + P (Windows) or Cmd + P (Mac) to print this article or save it as a PDF.

I wouldn’t start with an argument. I’d probably just tell you the truth. My belief didn’t come from growing up in organized religion or having everything figured out. It came from running into the limits of myself. There was a time where everything looked fine on the outside… but internally, I was carrying more than I could explain. Pressure, expectations, the need to get everything right. I believed in God, but I was still living like everything depended on me. And that gets heavy. Not all at once — but over time, it wears on you. What I’ve come to see is that a lot of what we call identity is something we build. Roles, success, failure, image, even religion itself. We slowly start living from that, thinking that’s who we are. But underneath all of that, there’s something deeper. A quiet awareness. A presence. A sense that life wasn’t meant to be carried that way. For me, it wasn’t one big moment. It was a breaking point. What I was relying on stopped working. And in that place, something shifted. It wasn’t loud. It wasn’t dramatic. It was more like realizing I wasn’t meant to be the source of my own life. That I was trying to build something on an identity that couldn’t hold the weight. And when that started to fall apart, I didn’t find religion. I found truth. Or maybe better said… I stopped resisting it. I began to understand that faith isn’t about constructing a better version of yourself. It’s about letting go of the version you built that was never meant to carry everything in the first place. That’s where Christ became real to me. Not just as an idea or belief, but as something living. Something present. Something that actually changes how you carry your life. I still struggle. I still have moments where I slip back into trying to control everything. But there’s a difference now. There’s a place I can return to. A sense that I’m not alone. That I don’t have to force everything. That there is a source underneath all of this that I can trust. So if you’re asking me why I believe… It’s not because I have all the answers. It’s because I’ve lived both sides. Trying to be the source…and learning to live connected to it. And one leads to pressure. The other leads to peace. If you’re struggling, questioning, or unsure… I get that. You don’t have to clean everything up first. You don’t have to figure it all out. Sometimes it just starts with being honest about where you are…and being open to the possibility that you’re not meant to carry this alone. That’s where it started for me. © 2026 William Frick. Want more content like this? Explore more articles in the Why We Believe series.

All of us walk into college carrying some version of the same quiet hope: that we’ll find something worth it. Maybe for you, that “something” is success, a career that validates your effort and intelligence. Maybe it’s relationships, deep friendships, a sense of belonging, or even love. Maybe it’s freedom, the chance to finally define your own life on your own terms. Or maybe, if you’re honest, you’re not entirely sure what you’re looking for, you just know you want it to matter. I came into college like that too. I had my own ideas of what would make life meaningful. But somewhere along the way, almost by accident, I stumbled upon something I didn’t expect. Something I didn’t even know I was looking for. And over time, I came to believe it was the most valuable thing I could ever find. Jesus once described this kind of discovery with a short, almost easy-to-miss story:“The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. Then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.” (Matthew 13:44) At first glance, it’s simple. A man finds treasure, recognizes its value, and gives up everything to obtain it. But the deeper you think about it, the more it begins to reflect something true about how we all live, and what we’re actually searching for. Found by Accident The man in Jesus’ story wasn’t out hunting for treasure. He wasn’t on some carefully planned expedition. He simply stumbled upon it. That’s not unusual, especially in the ancient world. Before banks existed, people would bury valuables to protect them during war or crisis. Over time, those treasures were forgotten, hidden beneath ordinary ground, waiting for someone to discover them. Even today, stories like that still happen. In 2015, a woman named Bobbie Oskarson was walking through a state park in Arkansas when she picked up what looked like an unusual rock. It turned out to be an 8.52-carat diamond worth nearly a million dollars. She wasn’t searching for treasure. She was just walking. And yet, she found something incredibly valuable. That’s what encountering the gospel can feel like. For many people, it’s not something they were actively pursuing. They weren’t necessarily searching for God. But somewhere in a conversation, a community, a moment of reflection. they come across something that feels different. Something weighty. Something real. It’s like finding treasure for free. Hidden in Plain Sight But here’s the twist: when Bobbie first picked up that diamond, it didn’t look like a diamond. It looked like dirt. That’s often how real treasure appears at first, hidden, unimpressive, easy to overlook. Meanwhile, the things that look most appealing on the surface are often the least valuable. History is full of examples of this confusion. In 1872, two con artists staged what became known as the “Great Diamond Hoax.” They scattered cheap stones across a field and convinced investors it was filled with diamonds. People poured in money, eager to claim their share of the supposed treasure. But over time, the truth came out: it was all fake. The tragedy wasn’t just that they were deceived. It’s that they invested everything into something worthless. That same dynamic plays out in our lives more often than we’d like to admit. The world is full of what you might call “false advertising.” It tells us that fulfillment can be found in achievement, status, pleasure, or recognition. It invites us to “sell all” for things that promise meaning, but can’t ultimately deliver it. Sometimes, we don’t realize the mistake until much later. I once heard a story about a little girl who found what she thought was an ancient arrowhead in her backyard. She was ecstatic. She spent thirty minutes carefully washing and polishing it, only to realize, with a cry of frustration, that it was just a rock. Thirty minutes, polishing something worthless. But if we’re honest, many of us spend not minutes, but years, sometimes decades, doing the same thing. We polish our resumes, our careers, our image, our portfolios. We invest enormous time and energy into things we assume are valuable, only to discover later that they can’t carry the weight of our expectations. As the actor Jim Carrey once said, “I think everybody should get rich and famous and do everything they ever dreamed of so they can see that it’s not the answer.” The problem isn’t that these things are bad. It’s that they’re not ultimate. They can’t give us what we most deeply need. And if we’re not careful — if we don’t learn to see clearly — we may spend our lives chasing what looks like treasure, only to end up with something far less. Learning to See True Treasure So how do you tell the difference? Jesus’ story suggests that it comes down to having the right kind of vision, to recognize what is truly valuable, even when it’s hidden. When the man in the field finds the treasure, he knows immediately what it’s worth. That recognition changes everything. His priorities shift. His decisions follow. In my own life, discovering the gospel felt like that. At first, I only had a vague sense that it mattered. But over time, as I began to understand it more deeply, I started to see just how valuable it really was. It wasn’t just a set of beliefs or a religious framework. It was something that spoke directly to the core needs of my life. It gave me identity. In a world that constantly pressures us to define ourselves by performance, grades, achievements, appearance, success, the gospel offers something radically different. It says your worth is not something you earn; it’s something you’re given. It’s secure, not fragile. It doesn’t fluctuate with success or failure. It gave me belonging. Not just surface-level connections, but deep, lasting relationships rooted in something more than shared interests or convenience. Friendships that endure through different seasons of life. A sense of being known and accepted, not for what I can offer, but for who I am. It gave me purpose. A clear understanding of why I’m here and what my life is for. Not just to build something for myself, but to love others, to invest in what lasts, to be part of something that has eternal significance. The more I saw these things, the more it became obvious: this was treasure. The Logic of “Selling All” That’s why the man in Jesus’ story does something that, at first glance, seems extreme. He sells everything. Not reluctantly. Not out of obligation. But “in his joy.” Because once you truly see the value of something, the decision becomes simple. If you knew, with certainty, that one path was infinitely better than all others, it wouldn’t feel like a sacrifice to choose it. It would feel like wisdom. Think about it this way: if you could go back in time and invest in something you knew would multiply in value beyond imagination, you wouldn’t hesitate. You’d rearrange everything to take advantage of that opportunity. That’s the logic of the kingdom of heaven. It’s not about losing your life, it’s about exchanging it for something far greater. As missionary Jim Elliot once put it, “He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.” An Invitation in the Middle of College So let me come back to where we started. What are you hoping to find in college? Because whether you realize it or not, you are making bets every day. With your time. Your energy. Your attention. Your decisions. You’re investing your life into something. The question isn’t whether you’re searching for treasure. The question is whether you’ll recognize it when you find it. College will offer you countless things that present themselves as “the thing," the thing worth chasing, the thing worth sacrificing for, the thing that will finally make your life meaningful. Some of those things will be good. But not all of them are treasure. So here’s the invitation: take the time to explore, to question, to investigate. Don’t just accept what you’re told is valuable, examine it. Test it. Ask whether it can actually deliver what it promises. And consider the possibility that the most valuable thing you could find might not look impressive at first glance. That it might be hidden. That it might require you to look deeper. Because if it’s real, if it truly is treasure, then it would be foolish not to go all in. The Treasure Turns Out to Be You There’s one more layer to Jesus’ story that’s easy to miss. Most people read it and assume we are the ones finding the treasure, and that God is the treasure we discover. But what if the roles are reversed? What if the treasure is actually you? The broader story of the Bible tells of a God who created people not out of necessity, but out of love. And even after humanity turned away, choosing independence over relationship, God didn’t walk away. Instead, He pursued. He gave everything. The apostle Paul describes it this way: “Though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich” (2 Corinthians 8:9). In other words, God “sold all” to find you. Not because you were easy to find. Not because you were obviously valuable. But because, in His eyes, you were worth it. And that changes everything. Because now the question isn’t just whether you will recognize the treasure. It’s whether you will respond to the One who already sees you as one. What Will You Do With What You Find? At the end of the day, all of us are building our lives around something. We are all, in a sense, high-stakes gamblers, placing bets with our time, our priorities, our futures. And those bets will shape the outcome of our lives. So if there really is a treasure, a sure thing, something of infinite value, then the most rational, most logical, most life-giving response would be to go all in. Not out of pressure. But out of joy. Because you’ve finally found something worth it. © David Jun

I’ve always known who I am in Christ. Or at least, that’s what I believed. I grew up in a Christian home where faith wasn’t something you chose, it was something you lived. Sunday mornings were filled with gospel music, and everything about my life was shaped by what it meant to follow God. For a long time, I never questioned it. I didn’t stop to ask who I might be outside of that identity. My choices, my values, even my desires were all filtered through what I believed God wanted from me. But recently, I started to wonder. Is it possible to have an identity apart from my faith? Can I still know God and also discover who I am beyond what I’ve been taught? Is there a part of me that I’ve never explored because I’ve always been trying to be who I thought I should be? These are uncomfortable questions to sit with. Because there have been moments where following God felt like losing parts of myself. When Faith Starts to Feel Like Disappearing I was taught to decrease so that He could increase. But somewhere along the way, it started to feel like I was disappearing completely. What I felt, what I wanted, what I was naturally drawn to, it all seemed secondary. The focus was always on becoming someone better, someone more pleasing to God. And the result? I lost confidence in who I was. I found myself constantly trying to become someone else, someone I thought God would approve of while quietly disconnecting from who I actually was. The Questions I Asked So I started asking a different question. Not whether I could have an identity separate from God, but whether I had misunderstood what it meant to walk with Him. Because the more I reflected, the more I began to see something I hadn’t noticed before. That following God was never meant to erase me. It was meant to involve me. Not a filtered version of myself or a perfected version. But the real, unedited version of who I am. My personality. My interests. My thoughts. My struggles. All of it. What if my identity isn’t something I have to set aside to follow God but something I bring with me as I walk with Him? Bringing My Whole Self Into the Journey That changed the way I began to see everything. Instead of trying to abandon parts of myself, I’m learning to bring them before Him. The things I enjoy. The way I think. Even the areas where I feel uncertain or not “good enough.” Because if God created me, then who I am isn’t separate from Him. It’s where He begins His work. Following God isn’t about pretending to be someone you’re not. It’s not about hiding your struggles or forcing yourself into a version of holiness that feels distant and unnatural. It’s a process, a transformation that happens over time, not by removing who you are, but by shaping it. There are days when I slip back into old thinking, where I feel like I need to fix myself first before I can come to God. Days when I question whether I’m doing enough or becoming enough. But I’m starting to understand that growth doesn’t begin with pretending. It begins with honesty. With coming before God as I am and trusting that He knows what to do with every part of me. The strengths, the doubts and the things I’m still figuring out. I don’t have to separate myself from God to discover who I am. And I don’t have to lose myself to follow Him. If anything, it’s in walking with Him that I begin to understand myself more clearly. Not as someone I’m trying to become, but as someone He has already known all along. © 2026 Sabina Kumi. Want more content like this? Explore more articles in Knowing God.

There's a reassuring aspect I want you to see. Have you ever stopped to truly appreciate the beauty of the Psalms and recognize the reassurance within those words? I know I am. I’m currently using a 365-day chronological Bible, and I happened to start in the Psalms. I want to take a moment and show you an amazing aspect about all the Psalms, and to hopefully entice you into exploring this more. Biblical Poetry First, let me start with a little about Biblical poetry. This is a unique form of literature that combines spiritual meaning with the artistry of poetry. The Psalms are a collection of 150 poems that cover a wide range of emotions and experiences. They capture the whole spectrum of our human existence. Reassurance This is a beautiful and reassuring aspect of the Psalms; we see the honesty and raw emotion of the writers when we read them. These writers did not hold back in expressing their true thoughts and feelings to God. Whether they were praising Him or crying out to Him, the writers poured their hearts out in every word. You can find truth, peace, and, honestly, to me, the most important thing is the reassurance. Here we have 150 poems reassuring us that just because we believe does not mean we won’t have struggles and emotional glitches. These writers poured it all in there; they were real, they felt, they hurt, they cried, and they praised. Remember that —  they praised, even during their hardest storms, they were honest and still believed and sought God. Psalms to remember In times of tears, turn to Psalm 42 and 88. When you want a Psalm to give praises to the Lord, go to Psalms 100 and 150. If you are like me and struggle with anxiety, go to Psalms 121. Next time you open your Bible or feel yourself struggling, take a moment to immerse yourself in the reassurance and truth of the Psalms. Let the words wash over you, comfort you, and remind you of the incredible love that God has for every one of us. © Jane Isley

Depression is a part of the human experience, but it isn’t your fault, nor a sin. When life gets overwhelming and the weight of the world seems to be crushing you from the inside out, turning to the Psalms can offer rest and, more importantly, reassurance. I have previously written about this in The Beauty of Psalms. “We will have struggles, emotional glitches, and hot mess express moments where we cry out to God, and that is ok. He is our Mighty Counselor after all.” Depression and Anxiety are real conditions; it is not a sin. You have done nothing wrong. As a person who has dealt with severe depression and still deals with Anxiety, I used to think I was the cause, I had done something wrong, and that I was sinning, and this was a punishment from God. Unfortunately, these are commonly held views by many churches and/or churchgoers still. This is where I got the idea that I was the problem and suffered immensely for years because of it. Well, I’m here again to reassure you that even some of the greatest people in the Bible suffered Depression and Anxiety, and the Lord still wanted them for His work and more assuredly LOVED them despite their conditions and did not blame them for it. Depression and anxiety are medical conditions, just like Diabetes, Asthma, and Arthritis. Don’t let anyone convince you otherwise; if they do, just walk away, find real support from God and others who respect your battle. Also, I want you to take any blame or doubt you may be holding over yourself, and cast it off. Let the Psalms calm, reassure, and hold you close to God. “He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the Lord, “He is my refuge and my fortress, my God in whom I trust.” (Psalm 91: 1–2) “Preserve me, O God, for in You I take refuge.” (Psalm 16:1) Whoever clings to me I will deliver; whoever knows my name I will set on high.All who call upon me I will answer; I will be with them in distress. (Psalm 91:14–15) “The Lord is near to the broken-hearted, and saves the contrite of spirit.” (Psalms 34:18) I was already going to tell you, just as the author of the article below suggests. Grab hold of one or two verses, hold on to them tight, and don’t let go. I wanted to provide a list of Bible verses for you to read when you are struggling, and to be able to bookmark it. Emily doesn’t just provide verses; she also tells how Psalms 13 brought her through an enormously hard storm. New Hope Nation, 50 Bible Verses to Help You Find Comfort by Emily Rico. You may also wish to check this 👇 out, where I talk about Paul, who had at the very least an anxiety attack at one point. “Real Christians” shouldn’t experience fear. — Wait. What about Paul, then? First published in Frontier Writers on Medium. © Jane Isley

If you’ve stepped outside or ventured onto the internet in the past week, you’ll likely have noticed that the world gets much more colorful this time of year. Why is that? A Growing Movement Well, if you live in the US, France, Ireland or parts of New Zealand, June has been a month designated to celebrating Pride for more than 50 years (though it wasn’t federally recognized in the US until 1999) and has evolved worldwide in its inclusion of various LGBT+ groups over the years (1). In Canada, there’s even an entire season dedicated to Pride each year, stretching from June to September. It seems to me that every year, the various festivals, celebrations and marches grow in number and reach. Many companies don rainbow colors in their logos and merchandise in support of all those affiliated with the various LGBT+ communities. Even MonopolyGo has added Pride flags in its app (screenshot below). I can’t help but wonder, though, what does this mean for Christians? What should our position or place be in all of this? That’s what I want to look at today. Navigating Turbulent Waters For many years, it was relatively easy to avoid the focus of this month altogether. It wasn’t as loud and, well, proud, for lack of a better word. Up until somewhat recently, there were laws in place preventing some of the LGBT+ activities that various groups aspired to participate in, such as same-sex marriage. I’m not saying Christians avoided sharing their beliefs on the matter completely, but some laws spoke for us on different issues, so we could hide behind them, in a sense. Though tensions were always present, they were fairly calm waters for believers. From 1999 to 2014, numerous states and courts pushed and debated the legality of same-sex marriages, with some making attempts to legalize them (2). At this point, the waters were becoming agitated, but manageable, for Christians, as we still had federal law in agreement with us. Then, in 2015, the storm hit. We had officially entered turbulent waters. On June 26, 2015 (during Pride month, interestingly enough), in the case of Obergefell v. Hodges, the US Supreme Court ruled that state bans on same-sex marriage were unconstitutional, effectively legalizing them (3). I say this is when we entered turbulent waters, because we’d officially reached a point where Christ followers were faced with the decision to stay firm in their beliefs and ride the waves that came with standing against what our government deemed legal, or “jump ship,” per se. This monumental shift stands out in my mind because I remember thinking, at the time, that this was going to reveal a lot of hearts. And reveal hearts it did. What is Love In the months (and years) that followed the Supreme Court ruling, I watched as both sides of the issue dripped with hate. Some who professed to be Christians expressed their outrage in hateful ways, and some individuals in the LGBT+ community engaged similarly towards Christians. It was like watching a tennis match between two people who deeply loathed each other. It was, and still is, ugly. So who truly celebrates love? Is it the one who spews insults and says hateful things about the other group? Or is it the one who is seeking acceptance and equality? I’d say neither. Love is not yelling at someone until they agree with you. And it’s not telling someone to do whatever they want because it makes them happy. And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them. ~ 1 John 4:16 What exactly is the love God has for us? In this specific verse, the word for “love” is agapé in the Greek, which means “charity, affection, or benevolence.” This word for “love” is found 116 times in the New Testament. It’s not romantic love, but rather a holy, selfless affection toward someone. It originates from God, is beautifully displayed in Jesus, and lives inside every believer, through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit (4). We love because He first loved us. ~1 John 4:19 God’s love is eternal. It initiates. Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good. ~Romans 12:9 God’s love speaks truth, and it’s active. It doesn’t sit on the sidelines and watch. God’s love is the reason believers shine a light on His design for marriage and relationships, as reflected in Scripture. If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners love those who love them. ~ Luke 6:32 God’s love perseveres, even when it’s returned with hatred. His love empowers believers to speak up and protect what He calls holy — not because of an arbitrary rule, but for the benefit of His creation. Follow God’s example, therefore, as dearly loved children and walk in the way of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. ~ Ephesians 5:1–2 So again, what should the believer’s response be right now, while the world is celebrating Pride? We should be out in the world, speaking the truth in love to everyone, because all humans were created in God’s image, whether they follow Christ or not. In our homes, we should be teaching our children that God created marriage for one man and one woman for one lifetime. Our place is lovingly running after those who are separated from God, because we care more about their eternal salvation than our temporary, earthly comfort. © 2026 Stephanie M. First published in Rooted in Reason June 8th, 2026. Thanks for reading! My heart is truly to see others dive deeper into Scripture and reason through things biblically. These are wild times, but together we can chase clarity in a confused world! If that sounds like something you want to do, please consider following Rooted in Reason so you’ll be notified when there’s a new post. Press on, friends! 🫶🏼 Sources: Pride Month History Same-Sex Marriage and the Law Obergefell v. Hodges Topical Greek Lexicon- Bible Hub Other posts you don’t want to miss: Critically Thinking through The Bible; Does it hold up to scrutiny? The Bible is not About You; It sounds mean, but hear me out! Press Ctrl + P (Windows) or Cmd + P (Mac) to print this article or save it as a PDF.

We all enjoy a good movie. Everything looks seamless, the acting, the scenes, the story. It’s easy to be drawn in because what we’re watching feels complete. But what makes a movie so compelling is that we only see the finished product, not the years of work behind it. We don’t see the mistakes, the reshoots, the long nights, or the moments where things didn’t come together. We only see the polished version that was worth showing. Watching movies made me realize something about faith. In many ways, our walk with God is similar. We are often shown the “finished product”, who we are becoming, the promises of God, the life that awaits us in Christ. We see glimpses of purpose, growth, and transformation, and we choose to believe in that vision. But what we don’t always pay attention to, is everything that happens behind the scenes. Because just like in movies, the behind-the-scenes process is where the real work happens. It’s where the shaping, the correction, the waiting, and the quiet transformation take place. It’s not glamorous, and most of it goes unseen, but it is necessary. God can show you where you’re going, but then lead you back to where you are starting. Because the version of you that saw the promise is not yet the version that can carry it. The pattern shows up clearly in Scripture. Joseph was given a dream of greatness, but what followed didn’t look anything like the promise. Betrayal, slavery and prison became his reality before the dream was fulfilled. David was anointed king, yet spent years running for his life long before he ever sat on the throne. Abraham was called the father of many nations, but he had to trust God through years that didn’t reflect what was promised. In each of these stories and many more in Scripture, the promise came first, but the unseen and uncomfortable part came after. It wasn’t a contradiction, God was preparing them. In many ways, our lives follow a similar pattern. So the journey begins. Not toward figuring out the destination, but becoming the person who can grow into it. Our daily walk with God becomes the space where He shapes us for the end He has already planned. There have been moments in my own life where I felt like I had seen what God promised, but my reality looked nothing like it. It felt slow, repetitive, and sometimes even discouraging. It was tempting to wonder if I had misunderstood something along the way. But looking back, I can see that those were the very moments where something deeper was being formed in me: patience, trust, and a kind of faith that doesn’t depend on immediate results. We often treat sermons, teachings, and moments in God’s presence like the movie itself, the exciting part where everything makes sense. But once we step away from those moments, we enter what feels like the “behind the scenes” of our faith. And that’s where things get real. That’s where consistency is tested, and faith becomes less about what we see and more about how we live. It’s also where many of us struggle, because we want the outcome without fully embracing the process. We want what was promised, but not always what it takes to grow into it. But the process is not a delay, it is part of the promise. God is not just taking you somewhere; He is forming something in you. Your willingness to trust and follow God is part of how He prepares you for what He has already promised. Maybe the “behind the scenes” isn’t something to rush through or avoid. I see it as the most important part of the story. Because without it, there is no growth, no depth, no transformation, only a version of faith that looks good on the surface but has nothing to sustain it. And unlike movies, our journey doesn’t end with a final scene. There is always more to learn, more to grow into, and more ways to be shaped. As we become, we also begin to help others grow alongside us. So maybe faith isn’t just about the ending God shows you. It’s also about who God is shaping you to become behind the scenes. © 2026 Sabina Kumi. Want more content like this? Explore more articles Knowing God.

I Don’t Know Why I Believe In God I don’t know why I believe in God. And for a long time, that bothered me. Because the more I searched for answers, the quieter everything became. I was raised in a Christian home, so in many ways, the choice was made for me. It almost feels like I was a believer before I was even born. Eventually, I made that decision for myself, when I was old enough to understand what this “new life” really meant. Looking back now, I realize how easy it was to say yes. I was a teenager, leaning heavily on the beliefs of others. What I was told about God, who He is and what He offers sounded beautiful, even irresistible. I didn’t want to miss the life He had for me. So I gave myself to Him. But as I continued in my faith, life began to pull me in different directions. The plans and expectations I placed before God weren’t unfolding the way I had hoped. Scripture says, “Ask, and it shall be given,” yet I kept asking and it felt like no one was answering. I began to wonder: Is this the same God people speak so highly of? Why does He feel so distant from me? I sat in church, listening to testimonies, clapping for others but never finding myself among them. It felt like I had been singled out, as though God was ignoring my prayers and my need for direction. Still, I kept going. I was encouraged by the confidence I saw in other believers. I looked up to them, hoping their certainty would somehow make sense of my own journey. But there comes a point when looking at others is no longer enough. My journey eventually brought me to a place where it was just me and God. I stopped moving not because I wanted to, but because I had nothing left to hold on to. I could no longer use other people’s experiences to anchor my faith. So I had to decide: would I give up, or would I wait on God? In truth, I did neither. I simply lived. I did what needed to be done, but I placed God outside of it all. I focused on my career and my social life, occasionally thinking about Him, but never fully returning. Maybe, deep down, I was still waiting… hoping for a whisper, something to reassure me that He was still there. But in the quiet moments, there was nothing. No answers. No clarity. Just silence. If it was a test, I failed it completely. Even then, I had friends and leaders encouraging me to keep going, to trust even when nothing seemed to be happening. But my struggle wasn’t just about unanswered prayers. The “new life” I was promised didn’t feel new at all. Each day felt ordinary, routine, predictable, almost empty. I wanted more. I wanted depth, transformation, even perfection. If Jesus lived such a powerful life, why did mine feel so…unchanged? And it didn’t stop there. I saw believers struggling with sin, with poverty, with sickness, with uncertainty. If this life we’ve been called to is so special, why do these things still exist? These are not new questions. Many have asked them before me. And I asked them too. Then, slowly, something shifted. I realized that the answers I was searching for wouldn’t simply fall into my hands. I had to walk with God and experience them for myself. Even when my life felt empty as a believer, walking away from God only made it worse. My thoughts, my decisions, everything kept leading me back to Him. There was no escaping it. Something in me was already rooted in Him. I could make my own plans, yet still find myself wondering what God thought about them. I could doubt, but still feel a quiet hope whenever He came to mind. I realized something I couldn’t ignore: I was made for this. I was chosen to walk this road, even through silence. To live in the waiting, to remain expectant, even without answers. This is what I was born for. I cannot live a life that does not include God. I may question, doubt, or come close to walking away, but I know this much: I am one with Him, and He is one with me. He chose me, and I have chosen Him. So if you ask me why I believe, my answer is this: It is in how I was made. My belief is not shaped only by my experiences. It feels deeper than that, like something placed within me before I even understood it. And for as long as I live, I will believe. © 2026 Sabina Kumi. Want more content like this? Explore more articles in the Why We Believe series.