Faith is a personal thing. It is
something to be shared, though not thrown in people’s faces or not used as a
defense against that which you do not believe.
It might surprise a lot of folks to know that I am a man of faith.
I believe that those who would be the first to tell you that you are going to
hell are ridiculous. But I also believe those that have nothing to believe in
are equally ridiculous.
Now before I begin this explanation, let me say that my intention
is not to anger, nor debate, or especially convince anyone what they might
believe is wrong. So hear me out before chastising me please. Also, you’ll
notice I use He when referring to
God. This is intentional but not something that I am doing to provoke you,
trust me.
First a bit of my history, I have been to Baptist, Catholic, Pentecostal
(including and beyond those that handle snakes), Jewish temple, Methodist,
African, Orthodox Christian, and Non-denominational Christian churches. I fully
admit that gives me a bit of experience on what I’m about to say, but also
leaves me with quite a laundry list of unfamiliar faiths as well. Don’t worry;
I’ll get to that too.
God is
omnipotent.
My God is all knowing. He’s the Alpha and Omega, in other words
he’s been doing it “like a boss”, since before it was a catchphrase. Hell, (notice I didn’t use ‘heck’) He
invented it. My God knows what I’m going to do, how I’m going to react, before
I even know what’s been done to me. This is key. Religious pundits like to say,
“God doesn’t put anything in my path, which I cannot handle.”
I disagree; God doesn’t put anything in your path that you can’t
use in order to be a positive example to other people.
God does not want people to suffer.
There are countless religions, or at least religious practitioners
that will tell you that in order to serve their God, they must kill
non-believers. This is absolute horseshit. Is an all-knowing, omnipotent God
just some 5 year old burning ants with a magnifying glass on a summer’s day in
July? Of course not, the human body, the earth, the entire universe is built
upon a distinct and wonderful design. No higher power could conceive of taking
the time, energy, and immense thought to create and foster life, only to watch
it live in agony.
God wants people
to advance.
People (and I’m talking to the atheists here) seem to have this
idea that if there was a God, we’d all be living the high life, riding around
in Ferrari’s and sipping $20 cocktails on a beach in Tahiti. Really? You
seriously don’t think the fucking creator of the universe had a better idea of
how we might spend our time than that?
This will be hard to swallow for believers, and non-believers – as well
as everyone in between - but guess what? Simply put; it can’t all be sunshine.
Someone has to bare a burden; someone has to tow the line, and to be frank many
people do. And I say this not as a Ferrari owner, but as someone who has had my
own external and internal struggles throughout life.
THAT. IS. LIFE.
It is by and large what you make of it; overcome the odds, be the
bigger person, figure out what matters.
Humanity is
what has flawed religion.
Most religions would have you believe that all of their sacred
tomes were translated by humans through the act of divine inspiration. Is that
a fact? Did God also tell you that in order to recruit people you should shave
your head, wear a toga and hang out in airports? Or you should knock on
people’s doors at just about the time they’ve settled in after a long day of
work to be with their family? No. Because God is not a moron.
Those, and many other things, are examples of what morons do when
they are clueless on how to get new recruits to join their ranks. Divine
inspiration can be a text from Mom, an Eminem song, or an Avengers movie. As
long as it motivates you to create, to inspire, to further your fellow man,
isn’t that divine?
What moves you isn’t people or their actions, it’s a feeling of truth.
Prayer Works.
I pray regularly. Sadly, it’s usually when I have run out of all
other options. But happily I’ve found that when those prayers involve those I
know, rather than center around me, they are answered.
If you
believe, my God is your God.
Another way of saying it is my God is revealed to me in male
form. God is personal. I happen to be
male, naturally, I tend to think of God as having male characteristics. Do I know
that God is male, or might have male attributes? Absolutely
not. However, because of my finite mind my God understands that he needs to display
things a certain way, so that I may grasp them. Would I take heed from a glowing white light, a
space alien, Mother Earth? Probably not, but maybe you do, and that’s fine.
Further, my omnipotent God is likely yours too. What I mean by that
is the God I pray to isn’t fool enough to create people and then underestimate them.
How could a Muslim that was born and raised
in Libya and brought up in a culture of Islam ever be expected to follow Christian
doctrine?
Even the best of us humans are contemptuous, argumentative and fickle.
I know this, you know this.
The very concept of one world religion is ludicrous. And our God knows
this as well. You don’t think for a second God would’ve seen those qualities in
us, and anticipated the outcome?
So what’s this all mean, where do we go when life leaves us? Fact is
I have no clue. Far as I know, no one gets to write home after the fact, and I haven’t
gone through it yet personally.
I think if anything the moral of the story at its core is this: Believe
in something, have faith and do your best to treat people well. You, and likely
what comes after are a work in progress.
To Be Determined,
David “Doc” Schroyer
