"I sometimes ask myself what actually keeps me believing in the Good News. Is it because someone else says it is true? That might have worked when I was a child, but it certainly wouldn't have been enough to keep me with it through the challenges of adult life. Is it because if I don't keep believing, I may miss out on 'eternal life'? No again. Because that would be a faith based on fear, and fear, though it can force us into doing things we don't want or intend to do, can never move our hearts or ignite our vision. When I really get to the heart of what keeps me believing, I discover it is actually something that on the surface appears to be intangible and rather fragile — it is my own personal experience of the times and the ways in which God has touched my life. Sometimes this touch of God has brought healing or comfort when I thought I was at the end of my rope. Sometimes it has given me the strength to stay in a difficult place or the courage to make necessary changes. Sometimes it has momentarily set my soul alight in a flash of joy that has given me energy to keep moving on, trusting that this experience was coming from a bedrock reality far deeper than my own small conscious world."