What a fool believes
So I encounter a person that describes themselves as agnostic and atheist. A brief description of the two words, agnostics believe that an ultimate anything such as a God is unknown and possibly does not exist. An atheist on the other hand denies the existence of a supreme being.
Basically we have a person that does not believe in anything as it relates to God or faith. That is not to say the person has no spirituality, morals, or ethics. As we talked I have to admit I found her point of view very interesting. It forced me to look at how I describe God and if my actions would make others believe that I believe. The more I looked at self I could easily see why others struggle to believe in God. We (me) say what we think others want to hear about our religious faith based spirituality or maybe we say what we think we need to hear, BUT our actions say something totally different.
I know people that will talk about drinking alcohol as if it were a mortal sin yet when out of town away from close family and friends they indulge in a few drinks. I am not here to imply that it is right or wrong it just further defines the message I was receiving from the person struggling to believe. It is as if we the faithful community of God believers portrays a fairy tale supreme being that even we do not believe in.
Dig deep with me for a minute. Do you really believe? Seriously now this is just you reading this so you can at least be honest with your self. If you say you believe, what in fact do you believe? Is it heaven or hell, forgiveness and judgement, angels and demons or what.
You see when you get right down to the nuts and bolts we the so called believers may not be so different than the so called non-believers. They admit that they struggle to believe and we struggle to admit that we are not sure what we believe. I think the miracle in it all is that we can come together to discuss earnestly our thoughts and emotions as it relates to God and the life after.
The agnostic person of whom I discuss makes it clear that she wants so desperately to believe that a loving God created us all and desires us to spend eternity with him. The struggle is finding out how to believe. We can say that church and scripture reading helps believers and non-believers alike and possibly that is so however it has to go deeper than that. It has to be the day to day interaction of people and their expression of love or hate that elevates our true belief in God.
For those of us that adhere to the Christian faith we have to ask ourselves if we are true followers or mere bystanders. To follow the model of Christ is to promote a message of love and peace. If our walk is as Christ walked I would say non-believers might find it easier to accept.
For a world filled with agnostics or atheists I say let's learn to appreciate their honesty and maybe we can see in ourselves what we look like to them. If we are in your face over the top religious judgmental bigots that think we know how to worship God then I would say we have little hope of attracting the non-believers. BUT AND LISTEN UP, if we keep following the same ole path we have been on, repeating the same confusing messages, we can rest assured we will send the so called believers to join the ranks of the non-believers.
At the end of the day friends let's just do what is right, love and appreciate our differences, forgive people for the same sins we commit, and offer a sign of peace in every step you take. It is time for the believers to act as if they truly have something to believe in.
peace to you
dale
Basically we have a person that does not believe in anything as it relates to God or faith. That is not to say the person has no spirituality, morals, or ethics. As we talked I have to admit I found her point of view very interesting. It forced me to look at how I describe God and if my actions would make others believe that I believe. The more I looked at self I could easily see why others struggle to believe in God. We (me) say what we think others want to hear about our religious faith based spirituality or maybe we say what we think we need to hear, BUT our actions say something totally different.
I know people that will talk about drinking alcohol as if it were a mortal sin yet when out of town away from close family and friends they indulge in a few drinks. I am not here to imply that it is right or wrong it just further defines the message I was receiving from the person struggling to believe. It is as if we the faithful community of God believers portrays a fairy tale supreme being that even we do not believe in.
Dig deep with me for a minute. Do you really believe? Seriously now this is just you reading this so you can at least be honest with your self. If you say you believe, what in fact do you believe? Is it heaven or hell, forgiveness and judgement, angels and demons or what.
You see when you get right down to the nuts and bolts we the so called believers may not be so different than the so called non-believers. They admit that they struggle to believe and we struggle to admit that we are not sure what we believe. I think the miracle in it all is that we can come together to discuss earnestly our thoughts and emotions as it relates to God and the life after.
The agnostic person of whom I discuss makes it clear that she wants so desperately to believe that a loving God created us all and desires us to spend eternity with him. The struggle is finding out how to believe. We can say that church and scripture reading helps believers and non-believers alike and possibly that is so however it has to go deeper than that. It has to be the day to day interaction of people and their expression of love or hate that elevates our true belief in God.
For those of us that adhere to the Christian faith we have to ask ourselves if we are true followers or mere bystanders. To follow the model of Christ is to promote a message of love and peace. If our walk is as Christ walked I would say non-believers might find it easier to accept.
For a world filled with agnostics or atheists I say let's learn to appreciate their honesty and maybe we can see in ourselves what we look like to them. If we are in your face over the top religious judgmental bigots that think we know how to worship God then I would say we have little hope of attracting the non-believers. BUT AND LISTEN UP, if we keep following the same ole path we have been on, repeating the same confusing messages, we can rest assured we will send the so called believers to join the ranks of the non-believers.
At the end of the day friends let's just do what is right, love and appreciate our differences, forgive people for the same sins we commit, and offer a sign of peace in every step you take. It is time for the believers to act as if they truly have something to believe in.
peace to you
dale
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