God, The Bible, Religion, etc...
I've noticed more than a few threads that have discussed God, Religion, The Bible, etc... And I'm impressed by everyone's ability to be level headed about all of it. So many times these discussions devolve into fisticuffs.
I thought I'd share my thoughts with you and get some feedback from you, if you don't mind.
Many years ago... over 2 decades ago, actually... I spent some time alone. That is to say: I didn't have a girlfriend, lived alone, and wasn't very social. I recommend everybody do something like this at some point because it forces you to deal with the man/woman in the mirror. When you can look in that mirror and be comfortable then you know you can go forward with relative ease.
During this time I was attending the University of Kentucky and taking classes in Physics, Mathematics, Astronomy, Philosophy, etc... I wrestled with God and Religion (among other things) and I formed some ideas... Tell me what you think.
Entropy made a dent in my thinking and I keep that in mind throughout this entire thing....
Entropy is the great constant. It's for real and it affects everything. Living creatures "resist" entropy by healing (for example), but ultimately succumb. Non-living things like rocks and building just crumble over time with no resistance.
It's the easiest thing in the world to contribute to entropy. If you don't like that building across the street you could just be patient... it will disappear in time... OR you could accelerate the process by setting it on fire [DO NOT GO SETTING BUILDINGS ON FIRE!!! It's just an example... a thought experiment if you will...]. If you don't like something you can always contribute to it's entropy to get rid of it quicker.
The HARD thing is to resist that entropy. If you like that building across the street then you should try to keep it there. Good luck. You can do it, but it takes constant work! There's always something that needs to be done to make sure that building is in good shape.
I like being alive. I really dig it, considering the alternative. If I didn't like being alive I could contribute to the entropy that's eating me away... I could accelerate my demise. But I'm not about to do that. I resist that entropy. I try to eat well and take care of myself... but more than that, I try to take care of those around me.
Do I want to live in a world where nobody trusts anybody? Where people steal from one another? Where people run around killing each other? No. Of course not. All of those things contribute to the entropy of the whole thing. ALL of those things DESTROY what's around them. I'm way more interested in Building and Maintaining this life.
So... from just a "Common Sense" approach it seems to make sense to me that we don't Lie, Cheat, Steal, Kill, etc... And we don't need some Big-Invisible-Guy-In-The-Sky-By-And-By to tell us it's bad. All it takes is an agreement among us that we all like being here (alive) and we want to keep it that way for as long as possible.
________________________________________
At this point, I'm going to interrupt myself and share with you an episode of "DINOSAURS" I once saw.
The Grandmother dinosaur had died and gone to Heaven. She was waiting outside the pearly gates, but looking through with joy on her face! St. Pete steps up and says, "Oh, I'm sorry. This is a mistake. You're not supposed to be here yet." And, POOOOF!!! She was alive again, back here on Earth.
This depressed her. She had seen Heaven and she didn't want to be here anymore.
She went around telling everybody how Great Heaven is. "There's shuffleboards as far as the eye can see...." she told them... She made the talk show circuit. EVERYBODY was listening to her stories and they loved what they heard...
EVERYBODY wanted to die so they could get to Heaven. NOBODY wanted to be here on Earth anymore... Society was DREADFUL!!!!
So... she died again. In Heaven it was explained to her that she couldn't do this!!! Everybody would be in Heaven soon enough, and when they were it'd be FOREVER!!! Life on Earth is fleeting and people should enjoy it while they can. She was told she needed to go back and spread this new message.
I always liked that lesson.
____________________________________
I only have 46 chromosomes.... 23 from Mom and 23 forom Dad... this is my opening LIMIT. I don't have 48, or 80, or 100.... This design provides me with a brain that weighs approximately 3 pounds. Another LIMIT. It's not 5 pounds or 100 pounds... just 3. And only about 10% of this brain appears to be doing much of anything... Another limit.
And this brain gets ALL of it's information from 5 senses... 4 really as smell and taste are pretty much the same thing... but still, 5 is another Limit. I don't have 6, or 8, or 10...
Limits limits limits...
Let's say there's a blue cup sitting in front of us on the table. How do we know this? Well... because photon's of certain wavelengths bounce off of that object and travel to the back of our eyeball where they collide with receptors.
Now... this takes time. Light travels very fast, to be sure... but still... it takes a little bit of time for that photon to travel the distance from the cup to my eye.... So, it's NOT POSSIBLE for me to see the cup as it is right now... I can only see it how it WAS a short time ago. This becomes more pronounced as distances grows.
When that photon hits my retina there is a chemical reaction or two or three or 1,000 that take place. During EACH reaction Energy is lost (in the form of heat)... So, after one neuron does it's thing and transmits to the next, energy (information) is lost... Sure, it's just a small amount... but it's real.
All these reactions take the signal to my brain where there are still more reactions taking place until I ultimately 'realize' that there is a "Blue Cup" sitting in front of me... All the while energy is being lost...
So, the image of the blue cup that my brain receives is Not only the cup as it was a short time ago... it's also a little fuzzy because some energy has been lost along the way.
The same goes for ALL of my other senses.
So... If I can not accurately discern the 'blue cup' in front of me as a matter of fact, then I'm quite CERTAIN that it's impossible for me to "Know" God or God's will...
And neither can anybody else.
_______________________________________
Given these physical limits (and others I'm sure I've missed)
I can say for sure that I don't know if there's a God and neither does anybody else.
I can say for sure that there might be a God.
I can say for sure that it doesn't matter to me if there is or isn't as far as living my life here on Earth goes.
I don't require the promise of Heaven (or the THREAT of Hell) to make me behave and love my neighbors. I simply don't see the need and it makes no sense to me and I've already explained why.
Why, then, do others (some of you most likely) find it necessary to believe in a God well defined by church dogma or otherwise?
If it's to teach you "God Is Love"... Well... you don't need a church or a Bible for that.
If it's to teach you not to lie, cheat, steal, or kill... C'mon... You KNOW not to do those things anyway... You don't need God, Church, nor Bible to know these things.
Is it the promise of Heaven that you need? Really? In lieu of everything else, this is that important to you?
Well... OK. Cool.
I thought I'd share my thoughts with you and get some feedback from you, if you don't mind.
Many years ago... over 2 decades ago, actually... I spent some time alone. That is to say: I didn't have a girlfriend, lived alone, and wasn't very social. I recommend everybody do something like this at some point because it forces you to deal with the man/woman in the mirror. When you can look in that mirror and be comfortable then you know you can go forward with relative ease.
During this time I was attending the University of Kentucky and taking classes in Physics, Mathematics, Astronomy, Philosophy, etc... I wrestled with God and Religion (among other things) and I formed some ideas... Tell me what you think.
Entropy made a dent in my thinking and I keep that in mind throughout this entire thing....
Entropy is the great constant. It's for real and it affects everything. Living creatures "resist" entropy by healing (for example), but ultimately succumb. Non-living things like rocks and building just crumble over time with no resistance.
It's the easiest thing in the world to contribute to entropy. If you don't like that building across the street you could just be patient... it will disappear in time... OR you could accelerate the process by setting it on fire [DO NOT GO SETTING BUILDINGS ON FIRE!!! It's just an example... a thought experiment if you will...]. If you don't like something you can always contribute to it's entropy to get rid of it quicker.
The HARD thing is to resist that entropy. If you like that building across the street then you should try to keep it there. Good luck. You can do it, but it takes constant work! There's always something that needs to be done to make sure that building is in good shape.
I like being alive. I really dig it, considering the alternative. If I didn't like being alive I could contribute to the entropy that's eating me away... I could accelerate my demise. But I'm not about to do that. I resist that entropy. I try to eat well and take care of myself... but more than that, I try to take care of those around me.
Do I want to live in a world where nobody trusts anybody? Where people steal from one another? Where people run around killing each other? No. Of course not. All of those things contribute to the entropy of the whole thing. ALL of those things DESTROY what's around them. I'm way more interested in Building and Maintaining this life.
So... from just a "Common Sense" approach it seems to make sense to me that we don't Lie, Cheat, Steal, Kill, etc... And we don't need some Big-Invisible-Guy-In-The-Sky-By-And-By to tell us it's bad. All it takes is an agreement among us that we all like being here (alive) and we want to keep it that way for as long as possible.
________________________________________
At this point, I'm going to interrupt myself and share with you an episode of "DINOSAURS" I once saw.
The Grandmother dinosaur had died and gone to Heaven. She was waiting outside the pearly gates, but looking through with joy on her face! St. Pete steps up and says, "Oh, I'm sorry. This is a mistake. You're not supposed to be here yet." And, POOOOF!!! She was alive again, back here on Earth.
This depressed her. She had seen Heaven and she didn't want to be here anymore.
She went around telling everybody how Great Heaven is. "There's shuffleboards as far as the eye can see...." she told them... She made the talk show circuit. EVERYBODY was listening to her stories and they loved what they heard...
EVERYBODY wanted to die so they could get to Heaven. NOBODY wanted to be here on Earth anymore... Society was DREADFUL!!!!
So... she died again. In Heaven it was explained to her that she couldn't do this!!! Everybody would be in Heaven soon enough, and when they were it'd be FOREVER!!! Life on Earth is fleeting and people should enjoy it while they can. She was told she needed to go back and spread this new message.
I always liked that lesson.
____________________________________
I only have 46 chromosomes.... 23 from Mom and 23 forom Dad... this is my opening LIMIT. I don't have 48, or 80, or 100.... This design provides me with a brain that weighs approximately 3 pounds. Another LIMIT. It's not 5 pounds or 100 pounds... just 3. And only about 10% of this brain appears to be doing much of anything... Another limit.
And this brain gets ALL of it's information from 5 senses... 4 really as smell and taste are pretty much the same thing... but still, 5 is another Limit. I don't have 6, or 8, or 10...
Limits limits limits...
Let's say there's a blue cup sitting in front of us on the table. How do we know this? Well... because photon's of certain wavelengths bounce off of that object and travel to the back of our eyeball where they collide with receptors.
Now... this takes time. Light travels very fast, to be sure... but still... it takes a little bit of time for that photon to travel the distance from the cup to my eye.... So, it's NOT POSSIBLE for me to see the cup as it is right now... I can only see it how it WAS a short time ago. This becomes more pronounced as distances grows.
When that photon hits my retina there is a chemical reaction or two or three or 1,000 that take place. During EACH reaction Energy is lost (in the form of heat)... So, after one neuron does it's thing and transmits to the next, energy (information) is lost... Sure, it's just a small amount... but it's real.
All these reactions take the signal to my brain where there are still more reactions taking place until I ultimately 'realize' that there is a "Blue Cup" sitting in front of me... All the while energy is being lost...
So, the image of the blue cup that my brain receives is Not only the cup as it was a short time ago... it's also a little fuzzy because some energy has been lost along the way.
The same goes for ALL of my other senses.
So... If I can not accurately discern the 'blue cup' in front of me as a matter of fact, then I'm quite CERTAIN that it's impossible for me to "Know" God or God's will...
And neither can anybody else.
_______________________________________
Given these physical limits (and others I'm sure I've missed)
I can say for sure that I don't know if there's a God and neither does anybody else.
I can say for sure that there might be a God.
I can say for sure that it doesn't matter to me if there is or isn't as far as living my life here on Earth goes.
I don't require the promise of Heaven (or the THREAT of Hell) to make me behave and love my neighbors. I simply don't see the need and it makes no sense to me and I've already explained why.
Why, then, do others (some of you most likely) find it necessary to believe in a God well defined by church dogma or otherwise?
If it's to teach you "God Is Love"... Well... you don't need a church or a Bible for that.
If it's to teach you not to lie, cheat, steal, or kill... C'mon... You KNOW not to do those things anyway... You don't need God, Church, nor Bible to know these things.
Is it the promise of Heaven that you need? Really? In lieu of everything else, this is that important to you?
Well... OK. Cool.
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I think most people who are involved in organized religion do it for the chicken corn soup dinners and the strawberry festivals.
October 20, 2009 7:53 PM | Reply | Permalink
Icky, I am a Believer. Not because I was raised to believe, but because I want to.
I just spent 20 mins. trying to give you the abbreviated version of how I got to where I am spiritually, and realized it would take a whole blog of my own and hit select all delete. All you need is the bottom line here.
I have done life without God, and I have done life with Him. For me, life works better with Him. I am a better person with Him. I am more grounded, less afraid. There are things I don't do anymore that I used to think were fun. Although a swear word slips out every once in awhile, I no longer swear like a truckdriver, so I am unlikely to go off calling anyone an "effin' fill-in-the-blank" like I used to (although it does happen from time to time...I'm not perfect!) I am working on developing a "servant's heart." I am less selfish. I am less judgmental. I like me better with God than I do w/o. And, it gives me a great deal of comfort to know that He is with me. That no matter what, no matter when, I always have someone to lean on. Someone there when I am feeling hopelessly alone. Is it really just MY inner strength that I am leaning on? Possibly, but I didn't feel that strength when I was not a believer...
The thought of a life after this earth appeals to me. In fact, if there is nothing after this, it sorta makes this life not make much sense to me. The big bang theory never resonated with me. The world of nature is far too complex for it to be the result of a random cosmic accident, IMO. The intelligent design theory makes more sense... Believing and not believing both require some mental gymnastics as far as I'm concerned. It makes more sense for me to perform them in favor of believing.
I recognize that this doesn't work for everyone. And, I'm not real happy with many of my fellow Christians these days. They are acting in a way that brings discredit on my Lord, and I am resentful of that. So much so that I am finding it difficult to sit in church surrounded by them, so I am currently not attending church with any degree of regularity. I'm working my way through that.
It is all about faith. I have more questions than I have answers. I cannot prove that He exists. I am not CERTAIN He exists. I only BELIEVE that He does. And for right now, that is enough for me.
That's my story, and I'm sticking to it! LOL
October 21, 2009 12:45 PM | Reply | Permalink
An oldie but a goodie...
________________________
The Dragon In My Garage
by Carl Sagan
"A fire-breathing dragon lives in my garage"
Suppose (I'm following a group therapy approach by the psychologist Richard Franklin) I seriously make such an assertion to you. Surely you'd want to check it out, see for yourself. There have been innumerable stories of dragons over the centuries, but no real evidence. What an opportunity!
"Show me," you say. I lead you to my garage. You look inside and see a ladder, empty paint cans, an old tricycle -- but no dragon.
"Where's the dragon?" you ask.
"Oh, she's right here," I reply, waving vaguely. "I neglected to mention that she's an invisible dragon."
You propose spreading flour on the floor of the garage to capture the dragon's footprints.
"Good idea," I say, "but this dragon floats in the air."
Then you'll use an infrared sensor to detect the invisible fire.
"Good idea, but the invisible fire is also heatless."
You'll spray-paint the dragon and make her visible.
"Good idea, but she's an incorporeal dragon and the paint won't stick." And so on. I counter every physical test you propose with a special explanation of why it won't work.
Now, what's the difference between an invisible, incorporeal, floating dragon who spits heatless fire and no dragon at all? If there's no way to disprove my contention, no conceivable experiment that would count against it, what does it mean to say that my dragon exists? Your inability to invalidate my hypothesis is not at all the same thing as proving it true. Claims that cannot be tested, assertions immune to disproof are veridically worthless, whatever value they may have in inspiring us or in exciting our sense of wonder. What I'm asking you to do comes down to believing, in the absence of evidence, on my say-so. The only thing you've really learned from my insistence that there's a dragon in my garage is that something funny is going on inside my head. You'd wonder, if no physical tests apply, what convinced me. The possibility that it was a dream or a hallucination would certainly enter your mind. But then, why am I taking it so seriously? Maybe I need help. At the least, maybe I've seriously underestimated human fallibility. Imagine that, despite none of the tests being successful, you wish to be scrupulously open-minded. So you don't outright reject the notion that there's a fire-breathing dragon in my garage. You merely put it on hold. Present evidence is strongly against it, but if a new body of data emerge you're prepared to examine it and see if it convinces you. Surely it's unfair of me to be offended at not being believed; or to criticize you for being stodgy and unimaginative -- merely because you rendered the Scottish verdict of "not proved."
Imagine that things had gone otherwise. The dragon is invisible, all right, but footprints are being made in the flour as you watch. Your infrared detector reads off-scale. The spray paint reveals a jagged crest bobbing in the air before you. No matter how skeptical you might have been about the existence of dragons -- to say nothing about invisible ones -- you must now acknowledge that there's something here, and that in a preliminary way it's consistent with an invisible, fire-breathing dragon.
Now another scenario: Suppose it's not just me. Suppose that several people of your acquaintance, including people who you're pretty sure don't know each other, all tell you that they have dragons in their garages -- but in every case the evidence is maddeningly elusive. All of us admit we're disturbed at being gripped by so odd a conviction so ill-supported by the physical evidence. None of us is a lunatic. We speculate about what it would mean if invisible dragons were really hiding out in garages all over the world, with us humans just catching on. I'd rather it not be true, I tell you. But maybe all those ancient European and Chinese myths about dragons weren't myths at all.
Gratifyingly, some dragon-size footprints in the flour are now reported. But they're never made when a skeptic is looking. An alternative explanation presents itself. On close examination it seems clear that the footprints could have been faked. Another dragon enthusiast shows up with a burnt finger and attributes it to a rare physical manifestation of the dragon's fiery breath. But again, other possibilities exist. We understand that there are other ways to burn fingers besides the breath of invisible dragons. Such "evidence" -- no matter how important the dragon advocates consider it -- is far from compelling. Once again, the only sensible approach is tentatively to reject the dragon hypothesis, to be open to future physical data, and to wonder what the cause might be that so many apparently sane and sober people share the same strange delusion.
October 21, 2009 2:30 PM | Reply | Permalink
Faith is believing something that cannot be seen or proved. You've provided as good of an accounting as can be given as to why I shouldn't believe the things I believe, to no avail. Doesn't even begin to shake it.
I appreciate you trying. Not believing is certainly more fun than believing. But for now I'm stuck with my faith. I have an emotional attachment to it that I can't shake, in spite of my efforts to do so.
Fortunately, in all other ares of my life, I am more reliant on facts!
October 21, 2009 2:47 PM | Reply | Permalink
Why do you think it is more fun not to believe than to believe? I would put it the other way around.
October 21, 2009 4:07 PM | Reply | Permalink
Because I like/liked to do a lot of things that are not in my best interest. Things that are fun, but you wouldn't want your kids doing them...I'm not going to bare that much of my personal life here (I'm not QUITE an open book!) but to suffice it to say I've been around. Would I go back to doing those things if I were to somehow "stop believing?" I don't know...I might. But I don't want to find out.
October 21, 2009 4:42 PM | Reply | Permalink
I can tell you with certainty that I also did those things. The were self-destructive... and they adversely affected those around me.
I contributed to that dread entropy.
I learned that I shouldn't do those things if I wished to have a meaningful, happy, and loving life filled with loyal friends and adoring family.
It was my outlook on life... It was MY actions... it was all my fault that things weren't going well...
It had nothing to do with God or anything supernatural.
I just figured it out anyway.
It's therefore not necessary for there to be a God in order for me (or you) to be "good".
So... if that's true (and it is)... they WHY do you find it necessary?
October 21, 2009 4:55 PM | Reply | Permalink
I don't know that I find it necessary...I find it preferable. You have your way of doing things, I have mine. Both ways are causing us to be better people than we used to be.
October 21, 2009 5:06 PM | Reply | Permalink
Stilli, if believing in God is what keeps you from doing things that you consider to be bad, I would ask you why? If it is because of fear of punishment, I can understand why believing would not be fun.
But if you acknowledge that you are able to know good from bad, and you opt to do what your soul tells you is the right thing to do, you will feel better about yourself either way.
I am also not trying to make you stop believing, but I just want to say that the idea that people who don't believe in god are all free to be hedonistic and dishonest, and self-interested (and therefore have more fun?) underestimates the fact that many of us are honorable people. In my own case I have thought long and hard about right and wrong, and my lesson to my kids was always, "What is the right thing to do?"
I am not saying this to be confrontational, but one could make the argument that a Christian could do all kinds of bad things, believing that if they repented in the end all would be forgiven.
So I think the idea that one way or the other, believer, or non-believer; it really comes down to being true to your own core that makes you an honorable person or not. And there is plenty of room for fun for honorable people.
OLD JOKE: Why don't Baptist's have sex standing up?
So no one will think they are dancing!
October 21, 2009 5:16 PM | Reply | Permalink
Funny! Thanks!
October 21, 2009 5:25 PM | Reply | Permalink
C'ville, I'm really happy to be having this discussion with you. We started to months ago..you asked me "but what if you just can't believe?" and indicated that you tried, but you just couldn't. I am just the opposite...I just can't not believe.
Not so much fear of punishment, but desire to please, or at least not disappoint Him.
This is certainly true, but there is some gray areas where I prefer not to be, but have pressure in my life to be. It's just easier for me to have the backing of my religion. I can't explain any further, wish I could.
I do not doubt that you are an honorable person, and I admire you tremendously. The dishonest part does not enter in for me, because with or without God, I am an honest person. Hedonistic? That is one of the areas I struggle with, self-interested, not so much. One of my biggest things is swearing. When I am not close to God, I start swearing, and I really prefer not to. It does not bother me to hear others swear, but I prefer to not hear it coming from mouth, or from the tips of my fingers.
You COULD make that argument. I don't like that, and I don't spend a lot of time "repenting." I believe God knows my heart, and He knows when I am trying, and when I am being willful. I try to have a relationship with Him that is much like the one I would have with a parent who I respected, and wanted to please (unlike the ones I had, where my goal was to get away with as much as I could!)
I do not disagree. There is fun for Christians as well. Just a different kind of fun for some.
Please do not get the impression that I think non-Christians are bad people or do bad things. After living in a small town where I was around primarily Christian people, I am now in a new place where I know almost literally no one, except my family. As far as my day to day life goes, my best friends are on TPM, and almost all of them are either agnostic, or atheists, and I am REALLY good with that. I love them as much as I love my earth based friends.
Great joke!
October 21, 2009 9:09 PM | Reply | Permalink
Thanks for your thoughtful responses. I really do appreciate all you said. To tell the truth, if you think that swearing is wrong, then it will make you feel bad if you do it, so you shouldn't do it because it seems wrong to you.
I don't like to swear, because I think it is a kind of cheap way to express outrage, and I think there are better ways of doing it, and an individual can come off with more respect for having done it.
[that is not to say that I never swear, but I think it shows an enormous lack of imagination and vocabulary on my part and it always embarrasses me for that reason -- not because I think it is bad -- as in religiously bad]
Anyway, thanks for a great discussion. I have no desire at all to change your belief system. If you are happy, I sincerely hope you remain that way.
October 21, 2009 9:22 PM | Reply | Permalink
So, true, but I find I don't hold myself to as high a standard when I am not feeling particularly close to my Lord. That's just a personal failing on my part. Some of us just need a little more incentive to do what we know is right. Again, purely a personal failing...not everyone is so weak!
But mainly what I "get" from my relationship with God is comfort. 24/7, no matter what, I feel loved. Perhaps I am needier than most, I don't know, but I need more than I get from those around me. He is a constant source of reassurance that I am loved. I can whine and snivel to Him, and I feel loved. If I am lonely, He makes me feel loved. If I am desperately unhappy, He makes me feel loved. I can FEEL His arms around me.
That is what makes the relationship mean so much to me.
October 21, 2009 10:16 PM | Reply | Permalink
Not trying to make you not believe anything... just extremely curious how, or WHY, you choose to believe the things you do.
You say it makes you feel better.
I don't know how to say this without sounding like an ass... and I can't think of a better way to say it... so... My kids find great comfort in believing in Santa Clause and the Tooth Fairy...
I'm sure their views will change one day... but... that's to be expected and is good.
Anyway...
I am glad you feel good and are happy. Life's too short to be miserable, that's for sure.
Long may you run.
October 21, 2009 3:09 PM | Reply | Permalink
I don't think you sound like an ass. You are being polite, and seem genuine in wanting to understand. I appreciate that. Others, in the past, have been downright mean and condescending.
I think your kids "like" santa and the tooth fairy, but I doubt that thinking about them gives them actual "comfort." And yes, they will out grow it. :-) Hopefully!
Please don't think it is just about "feeling" better. It makes me "be" a better person. More like the person I want to be, rather than the one I would be. May seem like a subtle distinction, but it is huge.
October 21, 2009 3:20 PM | Reply | Permalink
Why would you be "worse"?
As I described above it makes perfect sense to be good in the first place... indeed it's really COMMON SENSE... assuming you like being alive.
Now, if you have a death wish... well... then maybe I can see the point in it... but living creatures with death wishes seem to be of a bad design from the get go. I suppose it's possible that some would be born this way (or made to be this way)... but it seems self defeating... it even seems self correcting over time... but I digress.
It's not necessary to have a big-invisible-guy-in-the-sky-by-and-by in order to figure this stuff out.
i.e. God is superfluous.
So... why do you find it necessary when it's not (necessary)?
October 21, 2009 3:44 PM | Reply | Permalink
I don't know how to explain it any better, Icky. I guess it's like you choosing to go through this life carrying all the burden yourself, instead of letting God lighten your load. Why would you want to do that, when you don't have to?
Maybe you are just stronger than me. And if that is the case, good for you. He is superfluous for you. He is not for me. Without Him, I worry about things that are beyond my control. With Him, I am able to turn them over to Him to worry about for me. When I am in horrible emotional pain, I can actually feel Him slip His arms around me and comfort me, 24/7.
You may think that delusional of me...but, like I said, it works for me.
October 21, 2009 5:01 PM | Reply | Permalink
My burden is very light. Partly because I have figured out how to love others... partly because I don't lie, cheat, steal or kill... or do those self-destructive things anymore...
By living this way I make it easier for those around me to live this way, too...
This makes everybody's life easier...
As far as God lightening my load??? If he wants to pay my taxes for me, that'd be great!
Other than than, I've got no worries... no problems. Honestly. I am "blessed", if you will.
October 21, 2009 5:07 PM | Reply | Permalink
Good for you! Just remember, if you ever find yourself in dire straits, so scared you don't know where else to turn, don't forget the possibility that He might be there, just waiting for you to speak His name. :-) His hugs are like none you'll find on earth.
October 21, 2009 10:21 PM | Reply | Permalink
I'm not sure what those dire straits would be. I've pretty much been through the ringer... I've never been seriously I'll or lost a child, so I can imagine a few really bad things... Bug it shouldn't come to that, should it? I mean... If it makes sense at all it should make sense at any time.
October 22, 2009 9:29 AM | Reply | Permalink
You'd be surprised, I think, at the number of agnostics/atheists who ask to be prayed for when the chips are down. And we HAVE lost a child, although she was an adult when she died of melanoma - bad things do happen when we least expect it.
No, it shouldn't come to that, but it does, at times. Making sense? If you are waiting for it to make sense, you may have a long wait! :-)
Seriously, Icky, I'm not trying to convert you...just wanted you to store away the thought, just in case.
October 22, 2009 9:45 AM | Reply | Permalink