A novel I just finished by Mitch Albom about belief and faith. The reason for the inspiration for my blog to hopefully help anyone understand faith and God a tiny bit better.

"One thing God gave us-is free will. Freedom to choose. I believe he gave us everything needed to build a beautiful world, if we choose wisely...the same things in life can be good or evil, depending on what, with free will, we do with them. Speech can bless or curse. Money can save or destroy. Science can heal or kill. Even nature can work for you or against you. God did not create bad things. He leaves it to us. And you might say well why doesn't God jump in? Why doesn't he eliminate the negative and accentuate the positive? Because from the beginning, God said, I'm gonna put this world into your hands. If I run everything, then that's not you. So we were created with a piece of divinity inside us, but with this thing called free will, and I think God watches us everyday, lovingly, praying we will make the right choices."

His story of life..."we get so many lives between birth and death. A life to be a child. A life to come of age. A life to wander, to settle, to fall in love, to parent, to test our promise, to realize our mortality."

In the story there is a terrible hole in the roof of a very poor church, but the pastor continues to preach despite the weather and cold. "In some ways, we all have a hole in our roof, a gap through which tears fall and bad events blow like harsh wind. We feel vulnerable; we worry about what storm will strike next...but with a little faith, people can fix things, and they truly can change, because at that moment, you could not believe otherwise."

In conclusion...
"Have you ever known a man of faith? Did you run the other way? If so, stop running. Maybe sit for a minute. You may find there is something beautiful to learn, and it doesn't bite you and it doesn't weaken you, it only proves a divine spark lies inside each of us, and that spark may one day save the world."

I hope this touches you in a small way, maybe makes you think just a little bit, who knows if you believed it all would you be a better person, a better friend, would it change the world, or just your world?
Mal