Another fella in my hometown had philosophical and theological bent. This was not a largely shared trait in town as far as one can tell. His name was Minute Thrornton. Minute got along with folk pretty well and they he; his difference was pretty well tolerated and he didn’t talk about it much anyway.
Minute was a member of the Calvinistic Community Church and friends of the pastor there. With this pastor Minute felt free to talk about and express his philosophical and religious beliefs and the pastor with him. His pastor told him one time that one of the criteria he had to fulfill in becoming a minister was to write his personal statement of faith.
Minute thought about that for some time and decided that he would write his own statement of belief. This is what he wrote.
I believe in God. I cannot prove that God exists, but I believe there is a God. I believe this God is different from we human beings in ways so profound that we can never fully understand God. But I believe this God fully understands us. Moreover, I believe this God is totally head over heels in love with us for no apparent reason that I can understand. This God has given us all that we have in creation and has given us the ability to care for these gifts and to share them, but we don’t seem to be very good at it; yet God continues to still love us.
I also believe we are in conflict with this God. We are in conflict basically because we want to be God ourselves and we want the world to reflect the glory of ourselves and our intelligence. But I believe this does not upset God particularly, he/she just accepts it. I also believe God has fixed this conflict we have but we are slow to understand or accept how it was done.
I believe that all the religions in this world, except for the really whacky ones and maybe even they, have some understanding of this God and tell truths about this God that are helpful to us.
I believe we are placed on this earth like children who are given bicycles with training wheels. Here we are to learn how to care for our world, and how to care for each other. I believe we are here to learn the basic rules of citizenship in a greater world to come and is eternal. We are already part of the world but need glasses to see it more clearly and what it is like and what we will be like in it.
I believe God loves everyone and intends for everyone to have citizenship in this eternal world; nobody gets excluded no matter what they do. They are included by what God has done as is doing.
I also believe there are times when God comes to us here on this earth clearly and we see clearly, if briefly. Those moments are to be treasured and we need to become more and more open to them.
I believe I can talk to this God and that this God talks to me, but all the languages in the world are not pure enough for that communication to be what it will be. I believe in our conversations with God are in the great religious books of the world were inspired and reflect God’s intention for us. I also belief that we are prone to reduce the God given truths to rules and regulations to try and justify our lives rather than just accept them as gifts to help us on our spiritual journeys.
I Love this God, not because I contain an inherent ability to love but because God loves me. This love is so powerful it spills over and lets me love others as well. But I will give the credit for that ability to love to God rather than claim it for myself.
I believe God has made me a searcher and I will continue to search until I’m found and I know it completely or perhaps it goes on forever.
This I believe,
Minute Thornton
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