I rise today in Heavens might; In Sun’s brightness; In Moon’s radiance; In Fire’s glory; in Lightning’s quickness; In Wind’s swiftness; In Sea’s depth; In Earth’s stability; in Rock’s fixity. I rise today with the power of God to pilot me; God’s strength to sustain me; God’s wisdom to guide me; God’s eye to look ahead for me; God’s ear to hear me; God’s word to speak to me; God’s hand to protect me; God’s Way before me.” St. Patrick’s Lorica

What would you believe if . . .  no one had ever told or taught you what to believe?  Please ponder that question for a moment.

That’s the question I was considering for many moments yesterday as I took a delightful hike in my happy place at Hall’s Ranch wilderness area.  Here’s what I came up with.

I would believe that God is BIG.  Really big!  Vast and expansive beyond my ability to fully see or hear or smell or taste or touch.  Or cognitively comprehend.  Closely connected to this is that I would believe that I am small and perhaps insignificant.  And yet that there must be something in me that was worth allowing me the privilege to be part of the breathtaking beauty that I was beholding.

I would believe that God is beautiful, and delights in beauty.  The brilliant blue of the sky, the numerous shades of green in the grass and trees and shrubs, the varied striations of the rock formations, the hawk flying, deer grazing, snake slithering.  All uniquely beautiful in its own way.

I would believe that God is the life behind all of this life. That not only did Some One create all of this, but that the vivifying Spirit was still living and breathing in and amongst it, and deep within me.

I would believe that this Life is both safe and dangerous.  And that as a result I can simultaneously be comforted and at peace in a warm embrace, but also aware that the power behind, betwixt, between and beyond all of this is.  That this One is to be respected.  That this all can change in a moment’s notice, and does.

I would believe that God is both transcendent and immanent.  That the Divine is so far beyond me that it is impossible to humanly comprehend, and yet that feeling of fullness and freedom and faith that both energizes and enervates me is living deep within my being. 

I would believe that God is capable of anything.  If God can do all of this, what can’t God do?  This is true on a micro as well as macro level.

I would believe that the One who has gifted me with an experience that fills me with joy and love and laughter is full of these same qualities.  That they all flow from the Source which takes great pleasure in pleasing.

I would believe that there is purpose to everything.  Harmony.  A natural symphony that is being played in which I’m both the performer and the participant.

I would believe that I am not as isolated and alone as I sometimes think I am.  I am not strictly an individual, but part of the whole.  That there is a connection between me and others, and other things, and the Other.

And love.  I would believe in love.  Greatly. A love that can’t be defined but only experienced.  A love that is true.  And eternal.  An energy that is flowing and in which I’m floating and because of which I’m being transformed. And that this Great Love desired to be experienced, known fully, in a much more personal way.

And finally, as I watched the changes that occur through the seasons, I would believe that these changes also occur in me.  And that just as life leads to death from which new life springs, so too my life would lead to a death from which new life would come forth.

That’s at least some of what I would believe if no one had ever taught or told me what to believe.  What about you?