The older I get, the more important my spirituality is to me.

A few years ago, I thought I had the God thing down pat. I knew all the doctrine, I was well versed in scripture.

Then I started studying the Bible with a different group of people, who turned everything I believed in upside down.

At first it was deeply disorienting to have everything I believed in questioned.

But you know what? God is bigger than any book, even the Bible. There is so much more to Him than what you can write down. He will surprise us for eternity.

I used to think that faith was having the right set of beliefs. But what if that belief set is based on limited human understanding?

Now I think that faith is trusting God — trusting that he is good, that He loves us completely and unconditionally, as St. John says: God is love. Trusting that He will transform us into the people that He created us to be. (What a challenge to trust, in this world where people are so committed to hurting each other!) I will be learning to trust and practicing being in God’s presence for the rest of my days.