Faith
I have a great URL, so great that I feel a little guilty not using it a) more and b) to discuss matters of faith. So, faith is the subject of the day.
I was raised mostly without religion. There were remnants of it. My mother had been raised Catholic but her entire family lapsed and later in life found out that they were part Jewish so we've adopted some of the traditions and ritual of both but not the daily practice of either religion. And my father wasn't really raised in any specific religion at all. So, as a child my only contact with religion was my friends. I used to go to church, Mormon church, with my friends families sometimes and I really liked it. I liked it for a lot of reasons, mostly because I had an abundance of faith and no other outlet for it, but there's something more specific I want to talk about now.
There were, of course, Sunday school classes at Mormon church, that involved among other things, reading and discussing a passage of either the bible or book of Mormon. I couldn't tell you anymore which passage this is (it's been years since I've read, much less studied, either the bible or book of Mormon), but I have a memory of one weekend when we discussed a passage about the concept of faith conquering fear. The gist being that if you find yourself being attacked by the forces of evil your faith will protect you. All you have to do is ask the Lord for help, for protection, and you will be protected. My seven year old brain didn't quite grasp that maybe the forces of evil weren't flesh and blood daemons but might be metaphorical and that the protection is for your soul not your body. I just liked the idea. I took it literally, and I liked the idea.
Later in life I came to a more broad understanding of that lesson. As with most things, there is a quote from Dawson's Creek that illustrates the jump I made from taking it all so literally to a more basic, general idea. [Yes, I do realize I'm writing about faith and religion and I'm about to quote Dawson's Creek to illustrate something but I couldn't quote the bible passage that illustrates the same concept. I'm okay with it]
"God. I've never really believed in God. In fact, I've spent a lot of time and energy trying to disprove that God exists. But I hope that you are able to believe in God, because the thing that I've come to realize, sweetheart... is that it just doesn't matter if God exists or not. The important thing is for you to believe in something, because I promise you that that belief will keep you warm at night, and I want you to feel safe always."
It's a wonderful thing thing to know that no matter what bad things might happen, they can't hurt you, not really. It actually comes full circle to the other primary principal of Faith. That's faith with a capital F because I think there are certain principals that cross over and belong to all faiths. One of those is forgiveness. If you keep holding on the the bad things that have happened to you then they are still hurting you, but if you let them go then you make it true that nothing can hurt you.
Those two things are the core of my faith, and I think all faith really. Be open, or in other words, don't live your life in fear of bad things, and if you should encounter bad things, let them go. I'm over simplifying, but...actually, maybe I'm not, maybe things just are that simple.
[Also, yes I am aware of the irony of my discussing letting things go on the first night of Chanukkah with the candles still burning in my window and I'm okay with that too. Chanukkah, not so much about letting go, but it does speak to the idea that bad things may happen but that with faith you can keep them from having the power to hurt you.]
I was raised mostly without religion. There were remnants of it. My mother had been raised Catholic but her entire family lapsed and later in life found out that they were part Jewish so we've adopted some of the traditions and ritual of both but not the daily practice of either religion. And my father wasn't really raised in any specific religion at all. So, as a child my only contact with religion was my friends. I used to go to church, Mormon church, with my friends families sometimes and I really liked it. I liked it for a lot of reasons, mostly because I had an abundance of faith and no other outlet for it, but there's something more specific I want to talk about now.
There were, of course, Sunday school classes at Mormon church, that involved among other things, reading and discussing a passage of either the bible or book of Mormon. I couldn't tell you anymore which passage this is (it's been years since I've read, much less studied, either the bible or book of Mormon), but I have a memory of one weekend when we discussed a passage about the concept of faith conquering fear. The gist being that if you find yourself being attacked by the forces of evil your faith will protect you. All you have to do is ask the Lord for help, for protection, and you will be protected. My seven year old brain didn't quite grasp that maybe the forces of evil weren't flesh and blood daemons but might be metaphorical and that the protection is for your soul not your body. I just liked the idea. I took it literally, and I liked the idea.
Later in life I came to a more broad understanding of that lesson. As with most things, there is a quote from Dawson's Creek that illustrates the jump I made from taking it all so literally to a more basic, general idea. [Yes, I do realize I'm writing about faith and religion and I'm about to quote Dawson's Creek to illustrate something but I couldn't quote the bible passage that illustrates the same concept. I'm okay with it]
"God. I've never really believed in God. In fact, I've spent a lot of time and energy trying to disprove that God exists. But I hope that you are able to believe in God, because the thing that I've come to realize, sweetheart... is that it just doesn't matter if God exists or not. The important thing is for you to believe in something, because I promise you that that belief will keep you warm at night, and I want you to feel safe always."
It's a wonderful thing thing to know that no matter what bad things might happen, they can't hurt you, not really. It actually comes full circle to the other primary principal of Faith. That's faith with a capital F because I think there are certain principals that cross over and belong to all faiths. One of those is forgiveness. If you keep holding on the the bad things that have happened to you then they are still hurting you, but if you let them go then you make it true that nothing can hurt you.
Those two things are the core of my faith, and I think all faith really. Be open, or in other words, don't live your life in fear of bad things, and if you should encounter bad things, let them go. I'm over simplifying, but...actually, maybe I'm not, maybe things just are that simple.
[Also, yes I am aware of the irony of my discussing letting things go on the first night of Chanukkah with the candles still burning in my window and I'm okay with that too. Chanukkah, not so much about letting go, but it does speak to the idea that bad things may happen but that with faith you can keep them from having the power to hurt you.]
posted by Beth at
9:45 PM
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