If someone were to ask me what the biggest lie I have ever heard was, it would be the one whispered by the frustrated man next to me sitting in a quiet church pew: "Having faith in God is not important". And as much as it pains me to say, I could see where he was coming from.
It didn't surprise me to hear him say it. He slipped into the cathedral seconds before the message began, as if he had been sitting in his car debating whether or not to even go in. His shoulders were slouched and he kept his head low as if Satan himself would emerge from thin air and yell at him for being there in the first place.
His arms were crossed soundly over his chest and his lips were spread into a thin line. I wasn't sure why he was there, but inside it seemed as if he had his own battle waging within his head as to whether or not he should be within those walls.
And that's when the priest spoke. He said the very words that this man sitting next to me disputed under his breath, only this man added the word "not" to the sentence.
The man ended up leaving before mass was even over, taking off like his life depended on it. And I sat there. I sat in that pew with his words playing over and over and over again in my head and wondering how he could possibly believe that God is not important. But it was also in that moment that I realized every single one of us have probably thought the same thing a time or two.
We've looked at our lives when they were imperfect and disputed God. We've picked up the phone only to be told that the life of our best friend was taken in a car accident. We've sat down in the living room as our mother squeezed our hand and tears filled her eyes as she explained that they figured out why Daddy was sick with a twist of the C-word. We've held our children close to our chest as the officer walked up our front porch steps and told us what a great soldier our husband was. Was.
We've seen pain and felt heartache in all areas of our lives. With everything that has happened to us, is having faith in God really all that important? My answer is yes.
I believe in His existence and His grace more than I believe in my own breath. I hold my friends hands as they hear bad news and feel Him there, His presence and strength ready to carry those burdens. I sit outside at night after hearing of bombs and shootings and trucks taking innocent lives, after hearing the ugliness of this world, and see the calmness of the moon and the beauty of the stars fitting perfectly to the sky. I see the bitterness of death but then turn my head and see my 5'2 sister with a hand on her swollen belly, ready to bring a beautiful piece of life into this world and it's in those moments that I know. I know without a shadow of a doubt that faith in God is not just important. It's everything.
You just can't let the bad moments in life drown it out.
