(This is an essay I wrote for my History and Systems of Psychology class. My teacher asked us to think, really think, about what we believe and what we think about our soul. He told us to go to the ocean and just sit there, pontificating, and come to our own epiphany of what living a good life really means. So...this is what I got.)
Deep inside every human being on earth there lives a soul, an invisible, intangible representation of our being. Within our souls we can hold the spirit, and in my belief, the Holy Spirit, the embodiment of God within us. This must be a conscience decision though, He must be invited in. There is a God, and He loves us and cares for us, but when He created mankind, He bestowed upon us free will. In this way, we are not slaves forced to live for Him, instead we can worship Him and love Him freely and completely. Our lives are determined by this choice, whether we live with Him or without Him.
Even if a person does not believe in God, He is still there. He is everywhere, within everything, is joyful when we succeed and is mournful when we fall. My belief is that God sent His son Jesus to die for mankind’s sins, and that the only way to get to Heaven is through Jesus. When I invited God into my life, I was also inviting his son, the human form of Himself, and acknowledged Him in my life. From that moment, everything in my life changed.
I was born and raised in the church, but never grasped any of the significance of God or Jesus or my soul until I was fourteen. During that time I was dealing with depression and suicidal thoughts, and came to realize that my life felt empty. There was no purpose to living as far as I could see. That is when a man came to speak at my church, and his words on God and His love sunk deep into my mind and I turned to the Lord. Now, a lot of people expect everything to be fine after this moment, but it was not. I still struggled with depression, but I had found my purpose and meaning in life, and could work past all the darkness.
From that moment on, I was never the same. My entire perspective on life began to change, from relationships to my family and everything in between. Since that moment, I have been growing and striving in my faith, not because I believe that being a better person will get me in to Heaven, I don’t believe that at all, but because I want to please my father God. There have been times when I have seen healings and miracles, unexplained events that blow my mind, and simply back-up my beliefs that God is real and more powerful and knowing than we could ever conceive.
It was interesting that we were asked to go to the ocean for this assignment, because the ocean is a significant representation of God to me. There are different ways that God speaks to people, that He reveals Himself to us, and for me that is the ocean. Looking at the ocean on a clear sunny day, it is a beautiful stretch of bluish-green, with glorious waves crashing into the shoreline. It goes on for what seems like forever, past what our eyes can see, into the horizon. It is a depiction of God’s splendor and loveliness. However, the ocean is also dangerous and fierce, something to be respected and not tested. The ocean is a mirror of how mysterious and powerful God is.
Nature shows us how creative and lovely God is, and I have a hard time understanding how someone could see all the wonders of the earth and the universe and not believe that there is more out there. That all of life is some cosmic coincidence. How can people see mountains and rivers, trees and creatures, and not see God? There is so much beauty and splendor in the world, and yes, I know there is also pain and suffering, but there must be a purpose, a reason for the existence of everything.
God, in all His power and glory, has chosen to love us as His children, and will live inside of us if we let Him. This fact, that God is always with me, is what comforts me in hard times. It gives me strength when I feel like giving up. This is my definition of a good life, living for God, and loving others the way God loves all of us. There may not be any scientific proof, but that is why it is called ‘faith’. We, as Christians, believe in God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit, willingly, without scientific evidence, and that makes our love and passion pure, because we are doing so through faith and with trust. Our belief is that when we die, our souls go to heaven and live for eternity, but that we should make the best of our time on earth, living for God and sharing his love with the world.
