TURNING
ON THE SWITCH

Topics: Belief; Creator; Experiencing God; Fellowship with God; Gratitude; Happiness; Heaven; Joy; Life; Majesty of God; Nature; Optimism; Purpose; Reverence

References: Psalm 8:1–4; 19:1; Romans 1:20; 1 Corinthians 2:9; 2 Corinthians 12:1–4

After I had faith, living things became precious to me. I wanted to pet them, hug them—babies and dogs and lizards, whatever. For me the great fruit of belief is joy. There is a God, there is a purpose, there is a meaning to things, there are realities we cannot guess at, there is a big peace, and you are part of it.

“God is good.” Near him is where you want to be. There is something called everlasting happiness, and Saint Paul—a fiercely imperfect man who was a great man—was granted visions of it, and that great user of words was floored by it and said that no one can imagine how wonderful it is. The human imagination cannot encompass it.

—Pope John Paul II, quoted in Peggy Noonan, John Paul the Great (Viking, 2005)