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Tuesday, January 19, 2010

my confusing take on spirituality...

So I have some time to kill and I think I wanna spend it throwing thoughts out into the madness of the internet... So in my first blog I promised to voice my thoughts on religion, and since I'm in a very spiritual mood at the moment, why not now. just a little disclaimer I'm not trying to influence anybody's beliefs, this is just how I see things personally. I'm going to try to avoid churchy talk, cus it annoys me, but it's gonna happen a little bit, so if that would annoy you, don't read this.

So for the record, I was raised catholic, and spent the majority of my life so far thinking that if my parents and sunday school teachers said something, it must be true. Now I'm not saying that these people were feeding me lies, but I think that when you grow up in such a traditional environment it's easy to develop a very narrow view concerning how religion works. In the past few years I've been lucky enough to expand this view and I think I'm a lot more connected to God because of it.

I really don't like the way that people tend to think that there can only be one right way and everybody else's way is wrong. I think that God/the creator/whatever you want to call Him/Her is such a huge complex being that there can't possibly be one way to look at Him. And the world is such a diverse place that different views and practices work better for different people, and that's a wonderful thing. Religion reflects culture and tradition as much as it reflects the creed that it upholds, it's not that one religion is right and all the others are wrong, it is that each religion is best for the group of people that subscribe to it.

Something that really works for me kinda goes along with the transcendentalist way of seeing things. I know all that oversoul stuff comes off sounding really eccentric, but I love the idea that we're all connected to one another and to nature. Anybody who's familiar with typical Christian beliefs is familiar with the verse "God is Love" this is really at the center of my beliefs, and I think that that love is what is at the center of existence in general, that love is what keeps us all connected so that God is a part of us and we are a part of Him and everything on this earth that he has put us in. I think pretty much the only thing He really wants out of us is to love and respect Him, to love and respect ourselves and one another, and to love and respect our environment. I think it's really easy to see the beauty in life and in the world when you focus on that love. I'm not sure if that makes sense to anybody besides me but I don't really think it has to.

Bringing that whole diversity of views thing into the mix, I think it's important to try to gain a lot of different perspectives in spirituality because it's so obviously multi-faceted. I think the reason a lot of people shy away from religion is they don't feel certain enough in what they think they would have to believe in. But really there is no certainty when it comes to spirituality. While I am 100% sure that there is a God and that I Love him I know this because I can feel it. I don't understand details, but I don't think you have to, I think it's enough to have that much and there's no need to explain every last part of how He works.

Personally I'm a big believer in going with gut instincts and being open to what the world is telling you. God talks to me every single day. Not in a Joan of Arc hearing voices kind of way, though that'd be cool, but in a paint with all the colors of the wind sort of way. (that only makes sense if you've seen Pocahontas but that song seriously explains it better than I ever could). I hear Him in music, in random incidents in my life, and in tons of other ways. I talk to him like I would any other friend, except I say thank you to Him a whole lot more. I think of God as somebody who's just there for us, to listen and to guide. He doesn't play favorites, he doesn't see Christians as any better than anybody else. When people start wielding religion like a weapon to prove that they're better than others, that's what turns a lot of people off of religion. I don't think it's criminal not to have faith, though I know I'm personally a lot happier because I have it.

So I don't know if it's possible to follow anything I'm saying if you're not living in my head, but it was nice just getting it out in writing and if anybody else connects with it, that's great too.Everything I just said is really only the tip of the iceberg, I don't pretend for a second that I have everything out, but this is most of what I've gotten so far and I think I've got a lot more to figure out as I move forward in life.

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