Thoughts on Pascal and Faith

Well I said I would write about Pascal so here are my thoughts after reading. First off I have to say that it’s funny that I would read Pascal considering my age and that the books he wrote were written in the 1600’s. But little did I know when I picked the book up that God was giving me exactly what I asked of Him in the spring, except now I am more ready for it. The interesting thing is that Pascal writes in little journal entries, some are bullet points others are paragraphs so I will do the same.
· Pascal writes about how a life without God is terrifying and, well, stinks. Throughout my spring and summer I wrestled with tough questions and woke up terrified at the fact that I didn’t know whether or not I believed. I would attempt to force myself to believe stronger but it never worked. God took His time on me to make me where I am today.
· Next Pascal writes that while faith is not 100% guaranteed, it is a reasonable bet. Like what I wrote about the Red Sox in 2004. Also by looking at the simple facts, my life while fully trusting and believing in God was way better and more satisfactory than not, so there must be something to it.
· Lastly we need faith and can’t live alone on reason. Knowledge might sound great but to really know God we need faith. Pascal also writes that faith is a gift; I really liked that because as I wrote earlier I tried to get more faith. It doesn’t work that way as I found out; God took time helping me grow and building up my faith bringing me closer to Him.
Well that’s it for now, unfortunately I have a limited time to read Pascal so I won’t have super-developed thoughts or quotes. One more thing, I am hesitant to say I am “out of” my previous problem or even call it a “faith crisis”. Really, looking back at it, the past six months while painful have been a great blessing, and I now see them as, instead of a problem another step in the journey.