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It’s important to have reasons for what you believe. “If only God gave me a sign” is a common thought people have if they are still unsure if God exists. And fair enough — it doesn’t make sense to “just have faith” and throw reason out the door.

But what if the best evidence for God’s existence isn’t somewhere up in the sky, but is actually staring at you in the mirror? “I am fearfully and wonderfully made” are words that the poet King David wrote thousands of years ago, and they are still true for each of us today.

There’s something that sets human beings apart from all other living creatures. Our ability to fall in love, to appreciate the beauty that’s around us, and to ponder our own existence are amazing and unique qualities. No animal or plant experiences these things: only people.

What’s more, your personality is like no one else’s. Your tastes in food, what excites you, the way you interact at a party, the hobbies that sustain your interest—that specific combination of character traits of yours is like no one else’s on earth.

So how is all of this evidence for God?

The God described in the Bible is not like the “God” that many speak of today. “God” is becoming quite a generic name for the idea of a great power or force that runs the universe. In fact, for many people today, “God” may even be the universe itself.

But the Bible’s God is different. He has a personality. He is knowable. He loves and shows compassion. He pursues relationship with people. He can even be offended. (Actually, the fact that God can be offended is a good sign that He’s not just a figment of our imagination).

You happen to be incredible evidence of this God’s existence because you, too, have a personality.

Think about it: how could a personality like yours, with all of its complexity, come from a force or a being that has no personality? It’s like asking how water could flow uphill, or how a monkey could type a Shakespeare play on a typewriter. It’s just not going to happen.

We know from our own everyday experience that if an object is complex, it must have come from something more complex than itself. Even the most elaborate inventions — whether rockets or smartphones or artificial intelligence — pale in comparison to the human brain that dreamt them into existence.

If that’s true, then you — with your incredibly intricate personality — must have come from a personal God, like the one described in the pages of Scripture.

Consider this from another angle. There are people today who feel as though their life is meaningless because they think that faith in a personal God isn’t possible. The philosopher Francis Schaeffer wrote,

The dilemma of modern man is simple: he does not know why man has any meaning. He is lost. Man remains a zero. This is the damnation of our generation, the heart of modern man’s problem.

This is the sad conclusion that modern people face if they believe they’re just a product of an impersonal universe. It’s a bleak situation.

This is why the Bible’s God provides such hope: “If we begin with a personal beginning to all things,” writes Schaeffer, “then we can understand that man’s aspiration for personality has a possible answer.”

If the personal God of the Bible exists, then your personality makes sense.

Even better, if God exists, then someone knows you fully and perfectly. You know that feeling that no one could possibly understand you? If God is just a force, then I guess that’s true. But if God is personal, then He really does know you and He really does care.

That’s why, in the same Psalm we looked at earlier, King David could write,

O Lord, You have examined my heart

and know everything about me.

You know when I sit down or stand up.

You know my thoughts even when I’m far away.

You see me when I travel

and when I rest at home.

You know everything I do.

You know what I am going to say

even before I say it, Lord.

You go before me and follow me.

You place Your hand of blessing on my head.

Such knowledge is too wonderful for me,

too great for me to understand!

It’s true. Like a glove is made for a hand, your personality points to the Personality who made you and knows you perfectly. The best evidence for God is you.

___

Originally published at Cross + Culture.
Photo by Kalea Jerielle on Unsplash.