Finding Meaning

"Only one fifth of young outsiders [nonbelievers] believe that an active faith helps people live a better, more fulfilling life."
-David Kinnaman, unChristian

This statistic really surprised me.  Only one fifth.

Many outsiders think that believing in God is boring or outdated.

For me, faith is the entire substance to life. Without my faith in God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit, I wouldn't be here.

To me, Christianity is not a set of rules and regulations. It's about having an intimate relationship with God. It's about finding meaning in life. It's about finding purpose in what is seen as purposeless.

As I've shared in previous posts, I have dealt with abuse, neglect, homelessness and various mental illnesses, including schizophrenia. Faith is what makes life interesting and meaningful when everything around us looks chaotic. Believing in God helps me to carry on when the road gets rough. Faith brings hope into my life at the most dire moments.

I could not imagine my life without faith. I guess if I didn't have faith, I would have been gone a long time ago. It's what gives me the will to fight through the hardships. My faith helps me to endure some really difficult stuff.

Faith gives meaning to life. If we don't believe then what is the point in fighting through difficulties? What is the point in all of us striving so hard when we're just floating on a planet in the middle of a huge universe?

I need a God. We need a God. We need Christ because we all fall down in our lives. We all make mistakes and sin. We all need forgiveness. We all need unconditional love.

We all need faith and hope.

Words and Actions

As many of you know, I am reading the book unChristian, a book about what nonChristians believe about Christians and Christianity as a whole.

A few days ago, I wrote a post about some of my thoughts on homosexuality and Christianity. I finished reading the chapters of the book related to homosexuality yesterday so I wanted to finish writing about my thoughts.

Let me begin by posing a question that was asked in the book...

Do our language and actions communicate compassion to others?

This is a key question, one that we should ask ourselves continually. We all make mistakes, but overall, our actions and our words should show compassion towards others. This is true whether you are Christian, Muslim, atheist, whatever... Our actions and our words are very important.

We may not always agree with what others are doing. Often we may not. People may test our patience and do things the hard way. But as human beings, we need to love others no matter what. This includes whether or not you agree with homosexuality.

Our world needs more love, not hate.

I believe our world needs love more than ever. People are divided over political agendas and religious beliefs. Some say we are more divided than ever before. Our divisions keep us from coming together. Our world is rocked by wars where there should be peace. Our world is rocked with fear where there should be calm. Our world is rocked by anger where there should be love. Our world is rocked by disagreements where there should be people working together. In order for us to move toward peace on any level, we need to come together in unconditional love.

I very much dislike when people say "God hates ______." God doesn't hate anyone. Whether you are Christian or not, we are not called to spread a message of hate but rather a message of love. When Jesus walked around, he didn't say he hated anyone. He welcomed everyone, including those the world turned away.  He showed compassion to everyone. We need to do the same. We need to follow His example.

Showing compassion isn't always easy. But it's key to making this world a better place. We are called to love everyone, even the people who frustrate us or make us feel uncomfortable. We are called to spread a message of love.

Where Is The Love?

I just began reading unChristian by David Kinnaman and Gabe Lyons. I first became interested in reading this book when I heard a sermon about it at my home church in NJ last summer. I have been looking for the book ever since then but was unable to find it in local libraries. I finally came across it at a book fair.

This book is quite, I don’t know how to say it, hard to read at times… hard to digest in some ways?!?

The book discusses how the Christian faith and Christians in general are viewed by people who are not Christian.

One of the interviewees said, “Christians have become political, judgmental, intolerant, weak, religious, angry and without balance. Christianity has become a nice Sunday drive. Where is the loving God, the Holy Spirit, an amazing Jesus, the love, the compassion, the holiness?”

While I can’t say that I am a perfect Christian by any means, I hope that my actions and words can represent God somehow.

When I was going through a lot of struggles a few years ago, I kept asking one of my best friends why she cared about me so much, why she spent so much time listening, why she didn’t judge me. Her answer was that she wanted to show unconditional love towards me. She saw that the horrible things I had gone through as a child made it hard for me to know what unconditional love is.

I can tell you that my friendship with her really did help me to understand what it means not to be judged or seen as less than. Unconditional love goes much deeper than that.

A question from the book that really got me thinking was “What is missing in our portrayal of the Christian faith to new generations?”

I’m not going to answer that question because I think it’s personal for each of us, but I will say that I wish and hope that the unconditional love that God shows towards us is portrayed to those around us. I wish that love, not hate, was spread. I wish that we would learn to not judge but rather love those around us- no matter who they are, where they come from, what they’ve done, what they’re doing. I wish that we could spread the love to the people who need it most.

We need more unconditional love in this world.