Find Religion

Tomorrow I’m heading out of town for the weekend for a fun and exciting few days with my best friends from high school. I’m very thankful for all of them, and I know many read this blog–so here I am, telling you all: THANK YOU FOR BEING YOU!

We don’t thank God enough for our friends. Beyond thanking God, we don’t thank them either. Today, I declare that it is Allison’s Official Thank Your Friend Day. I challenge you to contact just one person you have not spoken with in over a month, but who is one of the best friends you could ever have.

Then, thank God for this friend. Try to make it a more common practice in your life.

Oh, and pray for me tomorrow that I reach my destination safely and don’t get road rage as I’m stuck in Penn State football traffic!

friends, God, best friends, pray, Penn State football

They other day I opened my mailbox and angels started singing, I swear. That’s what happens when you see that little slip of paper telling you that there’s a package to be picked up at the post office.

The daily mail box check is totally an ego boost somedays.

Anyways, I ran to the post office window and retrieved my package. It wasn’t so exciting–something I had been expecting anyway: My halloween costume, purchased (because I’m lazy) on ebay (because I’m cheap).

I love halloween. Does that make me a bad Christian? I think not. Growing up, I had a friend whose parents would not let him celebrate halloween, and I’m sad not think of all the fun he missed.

Check your history books–halloween has religious roots. It originally honored the dead, not the devil.

This year, I’m being the Queen of Hearts and my boyfriend is going as the Mad Hatter–a tribute to one of my favorite books of all time, Alice in Wonderland.

Do you celebrate halloween? Why or why not? Leave me a comment and tell me all about it!

angels, mail, halloween costume, halloween, Alice in Wonderland

Just like to share an uplifting story with you all:

This month has been really tight on money for me, and the other day I was at a breaking point. As I struggled to stop worrying and get some sleep, I desparately prayed to God, not a prayer of thanks or praise, but a selfish prayer, a prayer for money.

“Just $50 more would get me through the week…” I prayed.

I visited my mom the next day and as I was leaving, She said to me, “Hold on a minute. I have a surprise for you!”

Apparently she had been putting $1 every week into a Christmas Club bank account for me and my sister. She said she knows how we usually struggle with money right before the holidays, and $1 every week for her wasn’t a lot, but it added up over the course of a year.

The check was for just over $50.

God answers prayers. What prayers have you had answered lately?

prayer

I wrote a post earlier today, and it is not hear anymore.

I’m not sure–maybe I didn’t post it correctly. Maybe I was in a hurry and clicked on the wrong button. Maybe it simply got lost in cyber space. These things happen.

In any case, I think it was the work of God that caused my post not to show up on here. You see, I had a bad day, and my post was somewhat of a rant, since I was angry at the world. It helped to talk it out, but I’m glad that negativity is gone.

Whenever I have a bad day, I like to say the serenity prayer. AA uses it to begin their meetings. Most of you probably already know it as well. In case you don’t, I’ll share it now:

God,
Grant me the serentiy
To accept the thigns I cannot change
The courage
To change the things I can
And the Wisdom
To know the difference.
Amen.

It helps me get through the storm. What do you guys like to say or do when you’re having a bad day?

I recently read on Yahoo News that the Duke players who allegedly raped a girl talked to 60 minutes, giving their version of the story. Deciding whether they are truely guilty or, in fact, innocent, opens a whole can of worms–but if they are guilty, should they be forgiven?

We are told are Christians to turn the other cheek. Most other world religions have a simmilar attitude about forgiveness. It’s just not that easy to do. It’s not hard to forgive, for example, a son who lies to you and breaks curfew. Punishment, sure, but forgiveness is almost automatic. The Bible, however, tells us that all sins are equal  in the eyes of God. You can easily forgive a child who wrongs you…

Can you forgive the 9/11 terrorists responsible for countless deaths?

Can you forgive the Amish school gunman who killed innocent children and himself?

Can you forgive the boys from Laramie who tortured a young gay man to death?

Can you forgive a priest who molests children?

Can you forgive a president who has an affair?

Can you forgive college boys for raping a woman?

 I think, as a country and as a Christian community, we need to work together for forgiveness. I’ll help you if you help me…

I have this close friend who dreams a lot, and we talk about dreams often. A question for you all, dear readers:

Do you think dreams come from God as answers to life’s questions, or do you think that dreams are just random movies playing in our heads to release our thoughts of the day?

Somewhere in between maybe?

I’d like some thoughts on this…

My new boyfriend just left after coming home with me to meet the parents for the first time. Scary? Yeah, a little. Probably more frightening for him than me. Poor guy.

It went well, though. Thank God, because I really like this one and want to keep him around for a little while

After he left, my mom asked me some questions about him, and one of the things she wanted to know is if his family was Christian.

How important is it, really, to follow the same religion as your significant other? To some, it is the most important thing in the world. Others say it makes no difference. I’ve thought about it all afternoon, and here’s what I’ve come up with:

Without the same moral system as your boyfriend or girlfriend, your relationship has no chance for survival.

I’m not sure that absolutely means you have to be of the same religion. I mean, some people think it’s a bg deal, and I respect that–it’s more of a personal choice in that case. But for the people who say it means nothing, at you I laugh.

Say, for example, I choose a date a hardcore athiest. One day, if everything goes as planned, we’ll get married, and I’ll want a minister and a church and some Biblical readings, and my significant other will not. Say he even plays along, and agrees to do the wedding my way and will just go with the flow–the ceremony won’t mean the same things to him as it does to me. And then, some day, I assume there will be children. Do they get baptised? Do they go to church with me? Do they say a prayer at night before bedtime? My husband and I would have differing opinions on all of that.

If you don’t “get” each other, religiously, it opens up pandora’s box. You don’t have to believe exactly the same things to make it work–for example, I know lots of Jewish-Christian couples have successful relationships–but there has to be some level of understanding and agreement when it comes to making a relationship last.

Don’t you think?

…than why is the sky blue and white?

*snicker*

I saw that on a bumper sticker once, and it made me laugh. I’m an avid Penn State fan, and after that game tonight, I think that my last post makes even more sense–State fans really need faith right about now!

All joking aside, what I really wanted to talk about is religion’s place in sports. Tonight, I saw a Catholic player cross himself before attempting a field goal. Another common site is a team kneeling together in prayer. And when a player wins an award? Many times, they thank God.

If you believe in the power of religion, I’m not sure it’s fair to ask for God’s help in winning a game, is it? And if you believe that prayer had no power to affect the game, then why are you doing it in the first place?

So here’s my advice for all you sports fans out there:

Don’t pray to win, or to make good plays, or to show up the other team, or to have the better coach. 

Pray for a safe game for all players.

Pray for game that is called fairly.

Pray for an entertaining game that will keep fans cheering.

And for you Penn State fans out there, pray that Happy Valley will always be a happy valley, no matter how many quarterbacks we go through in a single game.

I read this article once about how these people are devoting their lives to proving the existance of angels. Now, that may very well be an interesting and righteous type of way to live out your days, but as I was sitting their in my bathrobe and slippers, I just kind of had to laugh to myself. When the words “prove” and “religion” are in the same sentence, it always makes me giggle.

After all, isn’t that what faith is for?

Religion is largely based on faith, right? I mean, religion asks us to believe in people, places, and events that we can never be certain existed or occured. Religion also predicts the future, and you definitely can’t prove the future until it happens, and even then did you actually predict the future or did you just get lucky?

Faith is a beautiful thing, and by proving things in religion, we lose that faith. Dealing with God is hard–the Divine asks a lot of us. When religion becomes fact, its not a matter of believing anymore. It becoms easy. Faith isn’t easy people, and faith isn’t based on facts. We don’t have faith in the fact that cows exist. We can see cows exist; it is proven. It is easy to believe.

As we move into an age where more and more things can be scienficially proven, I think we are moving into an age where faith is dying. To me, that is a horrible, horrible way to live. I’m not saying you shouldn’t soul search. I’m not saying you should ask questions.

I’m simply saying that sometimes its a matter of believing in something you aren’t sure is true–just hoping that it is true and living your life as though it is true.

Personally, I have faith in a number of things, religious and secular. I have faith in heaven. I have faith in the power of prayer. I have faith that I will be successful in life.

What do you have faith in, readers?

Isn’t it funny how one writer can change the way you think about life? That’s how I’ve always felt, and growing up, I’ve bee influenced and motivated by a number of inspiring writers, to whom I now feel indebted. Dear reader, thank you for being here, because I hope I can become such a writer to you. This is the first of many posts in which I’d like to hold a little conversation about religion, and I hope that you’ll continue with me every step of the way.

Speaking of influences, I have to admit that the Bible was one of the most motivating pieces of literature I’ve ever read. Now, I’m speaking clearly from a writer’s standpoint. Even if you don’t believe in Jesus and Moses and Noah and all those other dead guys, it’s one hell of a story, don’t you think? The Bible is kind of like a big soap opera. I mean, think about it. Abandoned babies. Miraculous healings. Questionable parentages. It’s all on Days of Our Lives. And it’s all in the Bible as well.

Which I suppose, brings me to a more important question. What in the Bible is fact and what is fiction? This question can be asked of any of the Holy Scriptures from any of the major world religions. Point in case—the Bible speaks of a great flood and a man who protects God’s creatures by building a ship and saving two of every species. At the end of this fantastic tale, God gives us the rainbow as a promise that such an event will never occur again. Is this what actually happened, or is this a bedtime story that the Jews used to explain the appearance of rainbows after a storm? Is this the news or a short story?

Truth be told, I don’t think we’ll ever know. Scientists can prove that at one time much more of this planet was covered with water than is now. Literature scholars can prove that a great flood story was told in many different religions. The actual event? Well, that’s a matter of faith.

And faith is a whole other subject, my friends, and one that I’ll be sure to talk about next time.

Until then, I urge you to think about the Bible and about other religious texts not only as spiritual guidelines, but also as literature. Even if you are not religious, these books have real value in out society, and are worth reading, as they are a reflection of our past. Religion is largely about a search for the truth in ourselves, and knowing where we come from is the first step to achieving that goal.

Happy Reading,

Alli