As
I travel on my life journey, I must ultimately look to God, not man. I must also repeatedly entrust myself and
every other human being to Him and remember we are all dependent upon Him.
There
is One God and Father of all who is upon all and through all and in all…
The
God Who makes the world and all that is in it…
[He is] inherent of heaven and earth…
He
Himself gives to all life and breath and all...
for
in Him we are living and moving and are...
we
are His workmanship…
(Ephesians 4:6, Acts 17:24,25,28,
Ephesians 2:10)
While
I pursue further discovery and understanding of God, I turn toward Him and ask Him to show me the truth of who He is and the truth of His ways and
realities. I don’t want to be convinced,
confused, cajoled, indoctrinated, or brain-washed by what others say about God. I will walk my own journey. If God is God, then He is more than capable
of revealing His true nature to me and to others. Obviously, at this time He chooses not to
have us all on seeing eye to eye in how we comprehend Him or not. I don’t completely understand why it must be
this way, but I can’t do anything to change it.
I can only take responsibility for my actions and how I personally deal
with that in my own life.
As
for me, I have no desire left to treat God as a theological argument with
others or to dissect Him like He’s a dead corpse on a metal table. I despise heated debates about God, the
Bible, or other religions or sacred writings.
I don't have to debate others and prove them
wrong in order to have confidence and peace within my beliefs. I care nothing to force my ideas or faith upon
others. I long to seek and know
the real God. While I do enjoy sharing
snippets of my personal journey in face to face discussions or through my
writings, I want nothing to do with forcing my faith down someone else’s throat
or forcing others to travel the same path I am on.
If
you don’t like what I write and it angers you, please don’t read it. I have no desire to irritate you or incite
your wrath. Expressing myself in writing is simply part of my journey.
If
we are talking face to face and you don’t want to listen to what I am saying, please
kindly speak up about it or change the subject.
I value relationships over ideas or beliefs.
If
you want to engage in discussions about God or other beliefs despite our
differing points of view, I ask you to truly listen to and consider what I’m saying and try to
understand me. Please be as respectful
and considerate of my ideas and faith as you are of your own. I am striving to offer the same courtesy to
you.
If
your only goal in engaging in a dialogue with me is to change my mind or to “prove”
to me how I am wrong and you are right, don’t bother. This attitude says to me that you care more
about forcing your beliefs/ideas upon me than you care about our relationship
or the mutual sharing of ideas. Again, I hold
relationships in higher esteem.
Entering
into this season of my journey where I long to walk the higher road of love and
grace for all people, I have arrived at a simple and final conclusion: endless arguments,
debates, or attacks will never make a positive difference in human relations or
bring any peaceful understanding.
"Religion is a love affair with information. Christ
came to offer a different kind of love affair, not one that revolves around
information. This love revolves around life, around living and loving, and
around letting go of the religious desire to be 'right' and accuse others of being
'wrong'. This love invites
us to get busy living a new way of life, where judging between right and wrong is taken out of our hands, and those
judgments are tossed away, to become scattered
in the dust behind us. Instead of judgment, we take hold of grace, mercy, and
love fully, both for ourselves and for others, with reckless abandonment. Religion will
make you fall in love with information, but Christ will make you fall in love
with life. Choose life. Let love become more than words; let it break loose and
change things in your world." (an excerpt from Mick Mooney’s book An Outsider's Guide to the Gospel)
For this next season of my life and my faith, I don't want
a love affair with information, having all the
answers, or dissecting God or the Bible.
Today, as I face the first day of
the rest of my life, I only want a love affair with God, grace, life, and people.
God utterly bewilders my mind. I am continuously torn between believing in His complete sovereignty and questioning why He does not put an end to people committing atrocious
acts upon other people and why He doesn't end suffering.
What
humanly spoken words can possibly
comfort the parents of children who are dying from terminal illness or children who are beheaded
by terrorists? What religious clichés can possibly comfort the agony felt within the heart of such intense human
suffering?
God is still my
hope for all things ultimately being set
right one day, but in the meantime, I have to somehow accept that we are ordained
to have our differences of beliefs and faiths, and we are destined to observe
and endure painful things in this earthly life.
I also have hope we are all learning something through the adversities for a greater
good.
I am not
going excuse God or offer pat answers to the suffering. There is something better offered to those who are
hurting, suffering,
and questioning: care, compassion, empathy, love,
grace, and hope. These
beautiful gifts are not lavishly extended in superficial or meaningless words
but through our actions.
Actions always speak louder than words.
Actions reveal the truth of our hearts and our intent.
In our actions, are we helping or destroying our fellow
man? Are we positively building up or negatively tearing down?
I am full of questions, fears, and doubts, and I don’t
have all the answers. Yet because of
this, I find that I can relate better with my fellow man.
Onward I travel this journey of life and faith.
God is my internal compass while I walk the path He has fashioned
for me.
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