God is Real

Romans 8:14
Job 40:1-9

5yr old's depiction of the night sky

I realized as a teenager that I had the freewill to choose the course of my life. I could decide whether I would continue going to church or not, whether I would be a Christian or not, whether I would continue in Christian community or not. I started reading a lot of different magazines and books (yes, I'm nerdy) and even decided that I would approach the questions of my faith from the assumption that I had been taught the truth all along but now sought out the evidence for myself. I decided I didn't want to assume it was all a lie, because then where would I even begin? but I wanted to be willing to change if all the evidence pointed to another religion or toward atheism. I was reminded of this search when one of my husband's fb friends put out a lure suggesting that God isn't real. My husband, of course, was caught and responded. The conversation might not have any impact on the friend, but only God knows.
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In the course of things the friend suggested that if Stephen Hawking sought out evidence for God and didn't find any, then there must not be a God. My response as a teenager was to read Hawking's book, A Brief History of Time. I found that Hawking did not seek out evidence for God; he sought out evidence to disprove God and in that book his conclusion thoroughly and completely failed to convince me. I suggested to my husband that he mention all the immensely intelligent people who have been convinced of God's existence (Pasteur, Chesterton, Galileo, Lewis, Copernicus, etc.) for every one Hawking. Of course, a facebook "conversation" or a blog post just don't have the capacity to decently explore the issue or a lot more would be said than has already been written here.
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Knowing that God exists, I want to be led by the Spirit of God. I don't want to be deceived by the perceptions of ordinary humans at the expense of our extraordinary Creator. I don't want to make the mistake of Job and forget how big and powerful God truly is. I've explored the evidence quite thoroughly enough to say that I don't want to be His opponent. I want to be His child.