Do You Have Faith?
Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay
What does the word God mean to you? Do you believe in one? Some people don’t, and sometimes it’s hard to argue with their reasoning, especially if they’ve lost a child. How could God allow such a thing? How could a caring God allow that kind of suffering?
Atheists don’t believe in God. Agnostics don’t think it’s possible to prove or disprove that God exists. And then there are varying degrees of believers. I often say that I’m not religious, but I’m spiritual. That probably means something different for every person who says it, but for me, it means that I believe in a higher power, but I am not a fan of organized religions, which seem man-made with structured beliefs and practices based on centuries-old recollections of history, which in my eyes, makes them subjective.
I like the idea of a church community, but I don’t need a church to connect with or communicate with God. I can do that anywhere. I believe we all can, and I do it every day because life often seems too complicated to make sense of it alone.
What sparked belief in God across the globe?
I am a believer, but my belief is in something more elevated than organized religion. Faiths like Christianity, Judaism, Buddhism, Hinduism, Sikhism, Syncretism, Islam, and all of the other lesser-known faiths, are helpful and even critical for a lot of people. Their faith is everything to them and that’s a wonderful thing. But what was the seed that sprouted a belief in God all across the globe? What made people believe in something all-knowing that makes us answerable and holds us accountable?
For centuries, civilizations all over the world have displayed evidence of their belief in a God. There are over a hundred different names for God ranging from Allah, Buddha, Christ, Consciousness, Creator, Divine, Great Spirit, Higher Power, and Jehovah, to Jesus, Krishna, Shiva, Source, The Universe, and Yahweh. Their names for God and their religious rituals are different, but the common thread is a belief in something much bigger than anyone could imagine. Something to pray to. Something capable of offering guidance, and if we are blessed, answers. But does a higher power always need an identifiable name? Is it possible to simply acknowledge that it exists?
Is God a force from within or without?
They say the eyes are the windows to the soul. Does that mean God is a force coming from within rather than without? Does it mean that God is our conscience? My father once told me that if I ever questioned something I had done, all I had to do was stand in front of a mirror and look into my own eyes. His message was that nobody needs to tell you if you’ve done something wrong, because deep inside, you already know. Can a belief in something larger than life, watching over us from above or from deep within, keep us humble and on the right path? Often, it’s when we get too full of ourselves that we end up in trouble. With so much craziness in the world, it’s hard not to question, difficult to believe, and almost impossible to keep faith, but there’s got to be something to it.
Is faith what’s missing in this modern world?
Are you proud of the life you’ve lived? Would you want people to tell honest stories about you after you’re gone? Are you an atheist? An agnostic? Are you religious or spiritual? Are you a believer? Do you have faith? What’s your definition for it and what do you call it?
Until next time,
Jean
AKA The Strategic Chicken - Making life’s journey one strategic step at a time.
