My husband and I took a ride today. During that time, I talked with him about the election. I asked how the news that I saw didn’t match the election results and he gave me the explanations. I realized that there’s something about life that I’ve forgotten that very important. I’ve forgotten that everything in life is very relative to how each person perceives it, even truth.
I write about my personal faith journey, but I always say that it is my story. My story told from my perspective, and I try my best not to tell anyone else’s story because I realize that I can’t tell anyone else’s story. As much empathy as I can have for someone else, I can never truly experience their life for them.
I also realize that as much as I would like to believe that what I experience is the same as other human beings, the simple truth is I will never be able to know that it is. I don’t even know for certain that everything I experience is real. It could be a dream or stimulation. Everyone else could be created to make my world seem real. Or maybe I am part of someone else’s dream.
None of us can know that the things we experience through our senses are exactly the same as what the rest of the human beings around us experience. One of the easiest ways to determine that one is to examine the sense of taste. I love the taste of cilantro, but some people think it taste like soap. Many people I know love the way popcorn tastes, but I can’t stand the texture and taste of popcorn. If we all experienced the senses the same way, then wouldn’t we all experience the sense of taste the same way? Another great example is being color-blind. Some people just don’t see some colors.
If I can’t trust my senses and if I can’t trust what I experience because it is biased because of my perspective and my expectations, then what can I trust? Is there anything real? The only real thing I have ever experienced in my life is God and that’s because of faith. It’s strange, but what I know of God, His existence, His love for me, and my faith in Him, those things never came to me through my senses and those things never weren’t taught to me or experienced through the world. Those things are just a part of me. What I know of God are as central to me as what I know of myself. I often write that I am and that’s all I need to be. God is and that’s all He needs to be, too. No one ever told me God existed, I just knew. No one ever told me God loved me, I just knew. No one ever told me I existed; I just was alive. There’s very little I know, but I know for now I am alive. One day, I’ll die. I know that God exists. That’s it. Maybe that’s all I ever really need to know.
My faith saved me. May God’s peace reside in all of our hearts.
