What Do You Believe — And Is Love at the Center?
What do you believe? What faith tradition do you identify with? Are you agnostic, unsure, or still searching? Even if you call yourself agnostic, you still live by a belief system. We all do.
But whatever you believe, pause and ask yourself something deeper: Is love truly at the center of it?
Most of us long for peace instead of war, compassion instead of cruelty, healing instead of hatred. I believe that’s because there is that of God in every one of us — a spark of divine love that calls us toward goodness. Whether we acknowledge God or not, we feel that pull toward love because we were created by Love.
So why, then, do we often become rigid and demanding in our religions? Why do we say, “You must believe exactly as I do, or you’re not a good [insert religion here]”? Why do some communities discourage talking with people of other faiths?
I’ve learned — and am still learning — that when we truly listen to people who are not like us, we discover something beautiful. We share far more than we think: generosity, compassion, empathy, a desire to care for the vulnerable. These are deeply Christlike qualities. They flow from the image of God that is in all of us.
And yet, I also believe this with all my heart: if you don’t know Yeshua/Jesus, you are missing something precious and life‑changing.
Jesus is the Son of God who willingly came to earth and became human for our sake. He lived a life perfectly obedient to the Father, so that He could be the spotless Lamb sacrificed for our sins — all our sins.
When we finally recognize our true condition — that we are sinners in need of mercy — and when we genuinely want to change, we can repent. We can turn toward Him.
And when we welcome God — Father, Son (Jesus), and Holy Spirit — into our lives, something begins to shift. We start to learn what His kingdom is really like: a kingdom where love is not just an idea, but a way of living; a kingdom where truth and mercy meet; a kingdom where we are invited not only to believe in love, but to be transformed by the One who is Love.
“And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them.”
— 1 John 4:16 (NIV)
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