Believe

I believe in God the Father Almighty,

maker of heaven and earth;

And in Jesus Christ his only Son our Lord:

who was conceived by the Holy Spirit,

born of the Virgin Mary,

suffered under Pontius Pilate,

was crucified, dead, and buried;

the third day he rose from the dead;

he ascended into heaven,

and sitteth at the right hand of God the Father Almighty;

from thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead.

I believe in the Holy Spirit,

the holy catholic church,

the communion of saints,

the forgiveness of sins,

the resurrection of the body,

and the life everlasting. Amen.

I like The Apostles' Creed. It's a comforting summing up of beliefs. It's like a check list, and I love check lists. But what I'm finding the older I get, the more I rest in the Word, the more I open myself to others, is that this Christian life can't be culled down to a simple list. 

There's a reason God gave us more than the Ten Commandments. It's the same reason He gave us free will. He wants us to love Him, worship Him, emulate Him because we want to, not because we have to. 

As a child and on into my early adult years, I just wanted that check list so that I could be sure I was doing it all right. Just follow the list, keep everyone (especially God) happy, and you win the prize -- heaven. Fail at any of it, and you get the eternal life sentence -- hell.

As a child I was taught the 5 steps to salvation: hear, believe, repent, confess, be baptized. I still see the value in all of those steps, but believe means so much more to me than it used to. Believing is all about trusting, having faith in, loving. Without the belief that God loves me and wants me to love Him, the rest feels forced.

So I believe in the teachings of The Apostles' Creed, but mostly I believe that God loves me and I love Him. And that is enough.

linking up with imperfect prose on thursday