First of all, kathie, I am so sorry to hear about your sister's serious accident; that must be very stressful and difficult for her and your family. I'm sending kind prayers, thoughts and meditations for her to feel God's comfort, peace, and healing.

Many people have a tendency to question God's existence and/or purpose when these traumas happen.

However, I believe that God IS love; and does not cause bad things to happen.

Also, the spirit of God manifests itself in different ways to each individual who is open to receive it; and also, I respect varying concepts and the rich diversity of religions.

Thanks for your comments, southerbl, both about my sister and about my post. I hope I haven't been misunderstood. I don't question the existence of God, I'm sure there is a God, I'm just not sure exactly what form he/it takes. I'm just pretty sure, at least for me, that he's not a "magic guy in the sky", which is really just a facetious, attention getting tag line. Also, I totally agree with your statement regarding the spirit of God manifesting itself in different ways to different people, which is why I also respect the varying concepts an diversity in religion.

I just love that God is a mystery. The mystery has fascinated me most of my life; it's kept me coming back, so to speak.

I once said that I find God in the oddest places, nature, music, literature, conversations. How do I know I've encountered God? For me, it's when I get inspired. And being inspired to me means when I get that intense connection with the mystery, something simultaneously within and without, that causes me to take in what I've found in that moment, or get rid of something I find in that moment that causes me to realize I don't want or need something anymore.

The mystery is more than just a mundane mental exchange, synapse to dendrite to synapse, to me. It doesn't control, or intervene. I guess you could say it's like a magnetic drawing to a more enlightened thought process combined with a hightened sensory awareness; an experience in time that has no precedence in my life prior to that point.

I just don't trust notions and ideas of God that purport to be absolute truth. I love the mystery, the seeking, the experience of inspiration when it comes, and it is always unbiddened, a happy surprise.

And just to be clear, I am not trying to take away from anyone's beliefs. I am happy if you're happy, and I really mean that. I would be the first to go to the defense of anyone being abused for having their own beliefs about God. I would like to think I could be defended as well.

Great post DeeD and I completely agree. Particularly the part about the mystery and the seeking. I've often thought that Jesus's statement "Seek and ye shall find" etc. was speaking more to the search for inspiration and knowledge that we should always be engaged in throughout our lives. If we were supposed to know the whole truth and meaning of life, we would. Maybe the "seeking" and learning is what it's all about, not answers.

I almost forgot! Here's #6 on the list of the Eight Points of Progressive Christianity. It expresses it very well for me:

As Progressive Christians, we find more grace in the search for understanding than we do in dogmatic certainty - more value in questioning than in absolutes.

First of all, Kathie, I am sending my heartfelt best wishes for your sister's recovery.

I am blessed by the wisdom in this thread. I could easily quote every post here so far and just say ditto, but the portion I quoted captures my basic beliefs. I am also struck by DeeD's description of the mystery of God. Add to that Jesus's statement Seek and ye shall find and there is what I believe to be my purpose in life - seeking to know that great Mystery. Of course that is an impossible task to complete in this lifetime, but every small step in that direction makes for a continually richer life and hopefully allows me to be of some little blessing to others.

Thanks Phil for your wishes for my sister and for your comments. I have to say that I go back re-read my statement at the top of this thread almost every day. Somehow I think I managed to finally put into words what I really believe! I'm finding that the longer I'm on tbd and on the right threads, the more I'm learning and finding ways to express things that have been rolling around in my head for a long time! The conversations we've all been having are helping me clarify and refine my thoughts. So thanks to each person who has been participating in these conversations!