Through much soul-searching, study, and listening, I came to believe in a power greater than myself AS I UNDERSTAND IT. My understanding of higher power is so deeply personal that I often cannot find words to communicate who or what it is.
I've talked before on this board about my difficulty with using the word "God." A good example of why I struggle with this can of worms is exemplified by the flap surrounding Army Lt. General William G. "Jerry" Boykin's statement regarding a Somali Moslem warlord: "My God is bigger than his God. I knew my God was a real God, and his was an idol."
This suggests that there is more than one God, does it not? If idols are false gods, does that make them "mere" figments of the imagination? The mind is an extremely powerful machine that can construct all sorts of alternate social realities. Doesn't the human mind create various conceptions of God? What makes Boykin's God more objectively real than that of the Muslim warlord? Can human beings experience an objectively "real" God (if there is such a thing) without first creating an image or concept in their minds?
Why is someone who identifies as a Christian less likely to adhere to a false idea of god than anyone else who conceives god? What I can say with some certainty is that the god that Berg preached is not the god of my understanding. I'm quite sure Maria would say Berg's God is bigger & more real than mine.
Actually, if Berg's god is God, I'm not sure that my higher power is even in the same category as "god." I don't know if I believe in a god who takes sides in human warfare. Or a god that can be bigger and more real than someone else's god. Call me agnostic on that one.