So when a person's "faith" goes through such a thing, they don't usually talk about it until most of the hectic parts are over. Talking about things like this in the midst of the hell is a little bit difficult because well, you don't really know what to say.
How could you speak definitively about something that is forever changing to you and for you? So I have backed off from talking about faith and my faith particularly until I know more about what I know about the subject.
Yes, and as luck would have it, I am through a significant transitional period in my faith and on the other side of that. FINALLY! GEEZ! Sorry for my exclamations, but man that was a confusing part of my life. Anyone else? Any of you going through that right now, have gone through it, considering going through it?
See in order to have a faith transition, you have to be open. Well, scratch that. I think a better way of thinking about it is you have to be sick of the bull shit. It usually starts by being drawn to authenticity in your life. You could call it a pursuit of truth -- not just some exploration of what truth is for the experts (pastors, philosophers, gurus, etc.), but what is the truth for you. What is true to you?
No, I am not talking about circumstantial truth or selective truth or anything like that. I am not talking about my truth or your truth, but the truth. What is true for everyone. Not just the narrow-minded faith-talking Jesusy people. What can we agree on when it comes to the subject -- all of us?
If what we collectively can agree upon is considered the truth, then to me, it has to be true.
But, what about God? Well, God does not look at all like the Christians, Muslims, Jews, or other religious groups define him/her/it to be when we look at God in those terms -- if God exists at all.
BUT (<-- and this is a big but), If God does exist, then religion for me becomes something completely different than it used to be. Religion now becomes man's attempt to explain the unknown. AND GOD DOES NOT FAULT US FOR NOT KNOWING -- no matter how often you are threatened, shamed, harassed, shunned, or ignored by the religious. All religions then have some truth in their writings, some information we could all gain from, some element of God.
All religions have a lot of crap - baggage if you will. All religions have the capacity to snuff out the life of a believer -- completely crush others, or allow a believer to blossom and grow -- love others immensely.
Some religions have done a fantastic job at explaining the unexplainable, some atheists are doing a better job of it. But what atheism and religion have in common is the fact that some very intelligent and enlightened people have taken an exorbitant amount of time thinking and talking and writing and reading about God or the absence of God.
So then my job as a "believer" is to explore all of that. Seek the truth. If I am on this journey to pursue the knowledge of God, then I can't go wrong can I?
In the Bible, Paul's last advice to the Thessalonians goes like this:
"19Do not stifle the Holy Spirit. 20Do not scoff at prophecies, 21Test everything that is said. Hold on to what is good." (I Thessalonians 21, NLT)In order to truly DO this. In order to take that advice, we have to actually LISTEN to other "prophecies".
I hope to be able to write more about how I came to this conclusion and how my whole life has been full of the life of God and light and darkness. I hope to also make it interesting.
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