How did God reveal himself to you? Christians say that but they are always so vague about it.
I suppose that the reason so many Christians are vague about it is because so often God's revelation is a deeply personal experience and often something that is difficult to describe in terms that are easy to understand by someone who has not experienced it. Perhaps the best way for me to explain is to share a bit of my own story:
I rejected Christianity in my late teen years, largely a result of choices that I had made that I couldn't justify in light of my Christian upbringing, but also because I found Christianity to be intellectually empty and unsatisfying. I continued to make some really crappy choices, got involved in a bad marriage, and found myself even more miserable than before. I began to look to religion and philosophy (mainly Buddhism and other forms of eastern philosophy) to try find what I felt missing in my life. Also, during this period, I used alcohol, drugs, and inappropriate contentography to try to fill the void. Eventually, I reached a point where suicide began to seem like such a real possibility that I was constantly trying to figure out the most painless and foolproof way to go about it (and I had figured it out, but lacked the "courage" to follow through, but I am sure that, in time alcohol would have supplied the "courage."). So, I ended up in counseling, which led me into rehab, which left me trying to get sober. About eight months later, I relapsed and hit another emotional low.
Having reached a point in my life of genuine agnosticism, I decided to try something I hadn't tried before, something that, at the time, struck me as somewhat insane: I tried to talk to this Godthing that so many people seemed to have faith in. I admitted to "it" that I didn't really believe in "it", but if "it" would help me to get my life in order, I would be willing to have faith. Within days, I felt a change: What had, up to that point, had seemed like such a burden (to be happy and sober) suddenly seemed like a possibility for me. Even more, I felt like I was not alone in all of this. So, I began to accept, with the faintest flicker of faith, that God cared and would help me with this. At the same time, I was struck with a desire to know more deeply who this God was. Eventually, I became aware of this quiet voice inside me, encouraging me to try new things and to talk to people who seemed to have things together and who seemed to know who God was.
At an AA retreat, I was encouraged to seek out a church of my choice, and I ended up in a Methodist Church that I had been dragged to as a teenager. As I was attending that Church, through the message and through the Scriptures, I began to hear God identifying Himself. In learning about Jesus, I, for the first time, began to understand that God was identifying Himself through the life, teachings, death, and resurrection of Christ.
Now, I realize that in just hearing this story, you are likely to ask me how I knew that this was God speaking to me through all of this, or worse yet you might wonder if I had a little insanity going on in my life through all of this. And, all I can really say to answer that challenge is that, as a result of everything that happened during that period, my life is better: I have not had a drink in over 3 years, I have been free from drugs even longer, and I have been free from inappropriate content for over two years now. Even more, I am content with life (a new feeling for me), my life is far more productive (I will be finishing law school in 3 weeks), I have meaningful relationships in my life (another relatively new thing for me), and I have joy. And, with all of this, I find myself much more open-minded and willing to consider all of the evidence. With this attitude, I have not seen anything that has even suggested to me that faith in Christ is irrational or unreasonable. If anything, the evidence for me seems to point to the opposite conclusion.
Now, the one weakness in all of this, the reason I don't think I could argue you into believing as I believe (even if I wanted to) is that so much of what I have come to understand and believe was a result of feeling broken beyond repair, being willing to look beyond the temporal for the solution, and finally listening to that still, small voice that expresses itself in different ways for different people.
