I did a Bible study once called “Why We Believe What We Believe”, it had a super long subtitle too, that I can’t quite remember right now and since the point of this quick write is to stay under 5 minutes of rambling, I’m not gonna go look. #sorrynotsorry #ihopeyoustillloveme Anyway, it was a decent study, though my goal was to equip myself with more than scripture to back my belief in Jesus (what I really wanted was science), I found myself solidifying the scripture references to back my own beliefs. Truly a good lesson for me, but not the kind of message I was hoping to share with my non-believing friends.

Let me be clear, I am not an evangelist. It’s just not who I am. I love Jesus and I am not one bit afraid to tell you all about my faith, my walk in faith, or what the Lord has done in my life, but I’m not out to preach at you or to you. Make no mistake, I WANT you to believe what I believe because I want you to know the joy of salvation in the way that I know it, but I can’t make you get it and Jesus wouldn’t have done that it – in fact, there isn’t one instance in the Bible where he did.

So the word today is {believe} and the word tomorrow is {why}; I totally cheated and combined them. I’d love to have a conversation with you over a glass of your favorite beverage about all of this, but for the sake of time, I’m gonna make a quick, not exclusive or conclusive, list of what I believe about what I believe in no particular order.

• I believe in Creation.
• I believe in Christ’s virgin birth and have more respect and admiration for Mary than I can ever even put into words. To know what she knew and experience what she did with grace (or even without) is nearly incomprehensible to me.
• I believe that our recognition, confession, and acceptance of Christ’s sacrifice at the cross is the only way to eternity with him. (And I believe it will be pretty amazing.
• I believe in heaven and hell. In what capacity, I have no idea.
• I believe in God-breathed scripture and the truth behind it.
• I believe that the word “Christian” has been tarnished over time and that makes me sad.
• I believe that Jesus would not give two hoots about your religious, political, or sexual, or any other preference when it came to welcoming you and treating you with respect and I don’t either.
• I believe there is right and there is wrong.
• I believe that having children is one of the greatest blessings I have ever experienced.
• I believe in the practice of cursive writing, memorizing multiplication tables, and some standardized testing. (Don’t starting writing hate mail).
• I believe that allowing God to choose my husband was the best thing I ever did. It was also the most difficult thing ever because, truth be told, I am not a patient person and I was tired of waiting.
• I believe losing a child is the worst pain I have ever experienced. Ever.
• I believe it’s important to have an open mind and a graceful heart. You can’t listen to others respectfully if you don’t. Lemme be clear, if you knew me in the past, I probably (definitely) wasn’t good at this. But I’m pushing 40 and I’m a little better now. It’s a life lesson learned for sure.
• I believe that sometime in my life span the Browns will have a winning season.
• I believe that if we were all just kind to each other we’d be living in a much better place.
• I believe God blesses us with lots of special people for life or for a season of life and we should love the ones we are with always and treasure those from our past and present even if we don’t keep in touch.
• I believe in forgiveness, because if God can forgive the crap ton of junk I’ve done I can certainly forgive whatever someone did to me that I think is terrible.

Someone asked me once, “What if you’re wrong? What if your God isn’t real? Your eternity in heaven never comes to fruition?” Well, what if? I know in my heart that it is real, but that believe isn’t enough for everyone else and I get that. So my response was, what if I am wrong? What did I lose? Nothing. Nada. I haven’t given up a single thing in my earthly life that I would wish I hadn’t because of my faith and belief in a God of salvation. But if I’m right, I spend eternity in heaven in celebration with Christ Almighty and loved ones who’ve also accepted his gracious gift. Then I asked – What if you’re wrong?