Taking a Position of Weakness over Strength

Say I:              Oh for God's sake will you stop trying to prove that Jesus was who you want him to be, already!

Says He: [puzzled stare]

Say I:              Every time you reach into that damn Bible of yours and pull out "proof" that Jesus was God or that he is the saviour or the Messiah or a miracle worker, you cheapen your own belief.

Says He:        My belief is not cheap.

Say I:              First, I didn't say that your belief is cheap.  I said, you cheapen your belief.  Secondly, I can prove it.

Says He:        Go right ahead.

Say I:              Prove to me that humans need air to breathe.

Says He:        That's ridiculous.   How do I prove that?

Say I:              Right.  What's ridiculous is not how to prove it, but why to bother proving it.  You have so much evidence for it that looking it up in a book is just silly.  Proving self-evident, obvious things is voluntarily taking a position of weakness when you're really in a position of strength.  It's silly.

Says He:        So, proving what I believe is silly?

Say I:              Yes.  It turns God into a science - something documentable.  The only reason you would bother to document it is to prove you were right, which cheapens your faith because you voluntarily claim a defensive, apologetic position.  You're defending do, but you're not, you're really defending your own work, your own belief, your own - apparently weak - beliefs by telling me what someone else thinks.

Says He:        I'm not sure I follow you.  Proving God is silly and cheap?

Say I:              Yes.  God is not a chemistry or math equation.  Proving what you have faith in based on what you feel - or worse, what someone else felt - is silly.  If you have so much faith in God that God became so obvious as breathing air, then why would you try to prove your faith?  

That you keep trying to prove your faith by burying your nose in that silly book is like saying you love Paris because you have read a travel guide about it:  its cheap.  Just live as if what you have faith in is actuallytrue and this constant urge to prove your point will eventually go away.