An Unexpected Epiphany

It is no surprise that in many ways the life I live is very different from those of my age group. For one, I am living a religion that many cannot understand and where we have practices that are right but arguably different from the world norm. One of these practices is when we have a testimony meeting one Sunday a week where people in the congregation can come to the pulpit and share their beliefs. Sure, that definitely runs the risk of uncomfortable things being said (and believe me, I have done my fair share of staring down at the ground and singing to myself wishing for people to just sit down), but it is cool that everyone has a chance to speak and testify of what they know.

Last week, I learned something simple that spoke to me in a profound way. First, you must understand that I am a communications disorder major, meaning that I want to be a speech language pathologist and that I have a strange love for grammar. So as I was sitting in this testimony meeting, a girl said, "And I know that God is always there for me."

'Doesn't she mean to say that He is here for her?', I asked myself. But then it got me thinking. She was right. She could have said here or there and it would still be grammatically correct. I then realized that the 'there' she had used was not what my classmates had learned as the "existential there" and therefore God was more of a real being than just some existing idea.

Now I will give you a brief explanation as to what this 'existential there' is, as it is key to understanding the point I will make. Existential there means is more of a filler than an actual place. If you can substitute the word 'here,' which is always a place, then it is not existential. For example, the sentence, "There is no more candy," would have an existential there because it is not a location and it would not be grammatically correct with the word 'here.' But the sentence, "The candy is over there," would not be existential because it is a location.

So away from the grammar lesson, and back to my epiphany. When I realized that God was not an existential there, I realized that he must be somewhere at an actual location, and not just some obscure idea that he only exists. He lives and is active in our lives and is real as if I she had said, "And I know that my best friend is always here for me." Yes, He exists, but He is more than that. He participates in my life, gives me meaning for my life and treats me as a daughter because I am His daughter. I think I have always known this, but being able to realize it in a small moment in such a powerful way is something that I really value.