Never stop questioning- accepting someone else's opinion is like playing follow the leader off of a cliff. The only absolute is that God is in control and His love endures. Everything else is up for interpretation. This entry marks the written beginning of a spiritual journey- faced with hardships, trials, adversities and day to day questions and concerns.
College is without a doubt a time for growth and maturing in a person's life. It provides, for those like me, a necessary culture shock to show us that things aren't as pretty and clear as we'd like to think. I was enlightened to different religious practices, or lack thereof, thoughts of death, social practices, and so on only to find myself drastically insecure in what I believed.
Every opinion I had was shallow and hand fed to me like a baby. I could quote answers but held no knowledge as to what made them true. The fact of the matter was that after years of believed success, I had obtained nothing more than the majority of Christians out there- a shallow, comfortable, and sunday school-established quasi-relationship with God.
Every question shook me to the bone, rattled my understanding, and frightened me to the point of non-belief. It was after my first Philosophy project that I truly understood what had happened- I had become a modern day, pharisitical hypocrit who looked at the law and the face value of everything and missed the most important component in this faith- LOVE.
To answer that grace was brought by the crucifixion of a perfect man not only leaves out the wonderful things He did on this earth, but it bypasses the very core of His message- not grace, but Love. The Bible speaks of the Holy Spirit being given, but many do not realize that it truly translates as the Holy Spirit of Love. Many of the issues we face today exist because of a non-loving world. Religion has become a cold term due to the lack of love seen in it. I have come to realize that love is the one thing that matters the most in our spiritual journeys in life. God's word provides us with guidelines that a life should follow. He sets up a perfect image for us to strive for, though we will never reach it. partly from imperfection and sin, but also because of our inability to understand. To say that you can understand the mind of God is blatantly false. I have found that God has created images for us to follow and question. Imperfection is accepted truth, but a personal journey and relationship is necessary to discover everything else.
For the sake of spiritual maturity, don't be afraid to question, to poke and prod. God gave us free will for a reason- so that we may earnestly seek Him and His truths for our lives, not just accept someone else's.
In the past year I have grown to love the opinions of others, and in fact my growth has become dependent upon them. As I struggle through some of the aspects of my faith that seem to challenge me the most- early death, alcohol, homosexuality, eternal punishment, etc. I pray for the support and voices of those around me to help me along. I look forward to the future encounters and spiritual growth that will entail. Remember- LOVE is the strongest of all of Jesus' teachings. If it weren't important, why would God make it forgiveable to blaspheme Him and the Son, but if the Holy Spirit of Love is blasphemed the culprit is eternally condemned? Never stop searching and questioning- never stand still.
"Love is the movement-
Love is the revolution."
-Switchfoot
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