MY FAITH

He told my mother that after a lifetime of being an atheist, he now knew that there was a God and that, when his time came, he would be so happy to go back to the place he saw. A week later he died.

This changed my entire life.

I began reading books about people who had near-death experiences, and then I read "Conversations With God" by Neale Donald Walsch and many more spiritual books.

I now have a real relationship with God. I have asked for the impossible, and it has come to me -- and there is no way that I could ever believe that God is not right here with me. I thank Him every day of my life. Sometimes I get angry at Him, but I always love Him and try to do what I know God would consider loving.

I will never be a part of any religion. Every religion is "man-made" and distorts God's true message that love is all there is. Some seem to teach hate more than love, and others are nothing more than traditions to me.

But knowing God has made me a better person, and I love knowing that God is here.

I guess this is my religion. It works for me. My church or temple is wherever I am because I always feel that I'm in God's house. I think we all are if we would just realize it.

-- Carol Miller, Rochester, N.Y.

Knowing God Is Its Own Religion

---

I was born into a family of atheists.

My uncle had a rare blood disease, and at one point he went into cardiac arrest while in the hospital. He was clinically dead for four minutes before being resuscitated.

When he came back to life, he told my mother that he had gone to a place that was so beautiful that words could not describe it. He saw a light and knew that the light was God.

But somehow, he knew that it wasn't his time yet. He knew he had to come back to life on earth, although he didn't want to leave that beautiful place.