Are in personal experience. Real belief doesn’t get passed on through DNA. We can pass on religious traditions through our family and extended community, but not actual faith. We learn whole-hearted trust in someone else not by reading their bio, but rather by giving them time to prove themselves in relationship with us.
At some point, your faith has to have a foundation that is not simply taking someone else’s word for it—you have to encounter the divine for yourself.
At some point, you have to let someone else encounter the divine for themselves—you have to give them the freedom to build their own foundation rather than just take your word for it.
At some point, “We have seen the Lord!” must become, “I have seen the Lord!”
All of which sounds nice and clean on paper, but it gets messier in real life. Between parents and children. Between pastors and parishioners. Between life-long friends.
We can feel uneasy or anxious when what has convinced others doesn’t convince us. Or, on the other side, we can feel disappointed or threatened when what has convinced us doesn’t convince someone else.
Every person must plant their own seeds of belief in the garden of their own soul, and then let it grow as the Spirit who waters it enables it to grow.
