Just because I don't believe in your God, doesn't make me an atheist.

You ask, “How can you not believe in God and not be an atheist?”  The answer to your question all starts with your definition of God. And whose God are you talking about? Is your God the God who parted the Red Sea so that Israel could walk across on dry ground?  Or is your God the one who  helped your favorite team win a national championship?  The ecstatic coach certainly believes it was  God who won the game.  I would suggest that the offensive line had a lot to do with it, but not according to the coach. It was God.  Is your God the one who was present in the burning bush that was not consumed by fire?  Or is your God the one  who just helped you find a parking place on a very busy downtown street?

I want to suggest that none of us “believes in God”.  We believe in an idea of God.  And that idea has been conditioned over our lifetimes. We have been conditioned by our parents and grandparents,  our pastors and Sunday School teachers. We’ve certainly been conditioned by our Bibles. But then you have to consider that it’s not the Bible, but it’s our understanding of the Bible that we believe in.  I know people who say, “I believe the Bible. I believe all of it.” But do they? There are 66 books in the Protestant Bible which contain 1189 chapters and 31,102 verses. There are 783,137 words in the authorized King James Version of the Bible. That’s a lot of chapters, verses and words to believe. When you say,  “I believe all of the Bible” you have said a lot. How can you believe the parts of the Bible you've never read and taken to heart? I heard a sermon years ago in a Southern Baptist church that was  entitled, “Is it Bible or is it Mama?”  This sermon that morning was not well-received  by the good folk of the First Baptist Church.

But let’s get back to the matter of God.  You say, “I don’t just believe in a concept of God, an idea of God, I believe in the living God.  I have had personal experience with this God”.  I don’t doubt that.  Just this weekend I talked with someone who shared a powerful, mystical experience thirty seven years ago in  a chapel of a 4H camp in Weston, West Virginia.  There were about 40 people, mostly teenagers,  in that chapel when something happened. One of the youth was sharing a devotion when it happened. The room was not filled with smoke, but it was filled with something. I don’t know what happened. None of us knew what happened. But  something happened. For about forty five minutes we were  overcome with love and a sense of Presence in the room. The entire group was crying, hugging and trying to make sense of what was they were feeling. This simultaneous experience happened to us at approximately 5:30pm on Sunday, June 30, 1981. So I can tell you the time and take you to the place, but I can’t tell you what happened. I can only walk into the room with you and say, “This is where it happened.”  So did this prove that there’s a God? There was a devout agnostic in that room.  She was not willing to say that the experience proved there was a God, but she agreed that something powerful happened.  So I agree that it didn’t necessarily prove that there’s a God. It proved that when 40 people are in a room united in love, joined in heart and purpose, strange and wonderful  things can happen. But we would be wrong to encourage people to believe in the 4H God. Just because it happened to us, doesn’t mean it needs to happen to anyone else. And we certainly shouldn’t try to replicate the experience. Jacob called the place of his dream Beth-El, the house of God. If I had to name it, I guess I would call that chapel-"The place where it happened."

Just because I don’t believe in your God who affects the  outcome of  football games, doesn’t make me  an atheist.  Just because I don’t believe that the God of all the Universe finds parking places for me, doesn’t mean that I don’t believe in God. It just means I don’t believe in your God. Just because I strongly doubt the truth of “everything happens for a reason,” doesn’t mean I don’t have strong convictions about spiritual matters. I just don't have strong convictions about your spiritual matters.

I heard the story several years ago about a family standing at the edge of the Grand Canyon for the first time.  The twelve year old son, overwhelmed by the experience, looked up at his dad and said, "Something happened here."  Sometimes that's about all you can say.

Auburn has the ball fourth and goal on Alabama's  three yard line.  There are two seconds on the clock. With Auburn down by six, the Iron Bowl will be won or lost on this play.  In that moment, have I ever prayed?  Not that I'm willing to admit.