Hello one and all!
Things are so wild and so good. I have suffered some immense difficulty over the past few months, but that is only fair when I consider all of the amazing joys and blessings that I get to live every day. I love school, I love my job, I love the people I live with, and just all of the small and beautiful things about everyday life. And of course I love getting to write with all of you!
As you all well know, I am a very religious person. I'm a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and it plays a huge part in my life--like, such a huge part that it can't really be described; I often am asked what my life would look like if I didn't know about the things I believe and I genuinely couldn't tell you because they are such a fantastically large part of me.
With that said, and as many of you well know just from knowing me, I can hardly have a conversation without God coming up. Since God is at the center of everything I do, it only makes sense that God is at the center of everything I talk about. Sometimes I feel like it might come off as a gimmick, but the truth is that if I don't mention God frequently I feel guilty. As I believe it, God gave me everything in my life. Every good thing that happens to me is because of Him. For me, I talk about God and my religious beliefs a lot because in my eyes God is the origin of every wonderful thing in my life.
To be honest, though, I know that I'm a pretty rare person in that regard. Most people aren't like that. A lot of people avoid talking about religion or try to hide their beliefs altogether. Some people fear being bullied or belittled, and others don't want to cause contention or arguments. In fairness, therefore, I get why some people are hesitant to talk about their spiritual beliefs.
But I don't think it should be that way. I in fact think that sharing spiritual beliefs is so important and, that if it happened more often, the whole world would be a lot better off. My hope is that I can start a conversation here today on why this is important and how we can let go of the things holding us back from having these amazing conversations with each other.
In my religion, we believe that all religions hold truth. Since that's true, I love learning about other people's beliefs. Everyone's ideas contain such great insights on our spirits, on the world, on the purpose of life, on God, on so many things. When I hear other people talk about their religious beliefs and share their ideas with me, I learn more about my own beliefs and who God is. The love and joy of hearing someone sincerely talk about what they believe is so pure and beautiful that it is simply uplifting just to hear.
The problem we have with talking about religion is that we have made it a bad thing because we've turned it into a debate when it should really just be a conversation. We have so much to learn from each other that we can't afford for it to be an argument. Here's the thing, people (and as a return missionary for my Church, I can say this with more conviction than probably anyone else): people are not going to listen to you if you are mean and belittle them. So when I want people to believe in God because He has blessed my life so much, I do not tell them they are going to hell! Because no one wants to go where love is not present. I tell them how much I have felt the love of God and how He has made me a better person, and I leave it at that. Because that's the truth, and that's all anyone that wants to learn more about my religion really needs to know at its core.
The thing to keep in mind with religious conversations is that no one needs to convince anyone of anything. I have friends across many religious denominations and talk about religion with them frequently. They know it's important to me, and it is important to many of my friends as well! Like I said, we don't all believe the same. But we're friends, and we're okay with that. We see that our beliefs are deeply personal to each of us and that all of our beliefs stem from goodness and a desire to do the right thing. When you think about it that way, there is truly nothing to argue about. Everyone is trying to do what's right! Only pure intentions here! That means that good things are going to happen. When we walk into a conversation about spiritual beliefs knowing that no one there needs to convince anyone of anything, we just need to talk about things that matter to us, everyone can be uplifted by the conversation and learn a lot. I know I sure have learned a lot from people of other religions. For example, I love studying Judaism because it teaches me so much about my religion. I've also enjoyed learning about symbolisms and rituals in Catholicism. There is so much to enjoy about each religion and I love hearing about what other people believe.
This subject makes me think of a personal experience in my life that took place just over a year ago. My best friend of about four years is an atheist. You all know I am a very devoted Christian. She is so kind and understanding of my religion. She lets me share the things that matter to me, and understands that there are some things in life that I hold sacred, even if she does not believe those same things. This friend of mine was also raised in a Christian home, but she decided preteen/teenage years that she didn't believe the things she had grown up being taught.
Since I knew her religious origins and I knew her present religious standings, I was always curious about her spiritual journey and how she got to the point of the holding her new beliefs. I always wanted to ask, but I was too scared to do it. Who can say why? Maybe it was because I didn't want to make her uncomfortable, or maybe it was because I was afraid she would think I was trying to make her feel ashamed of her beliefs, when all I genuinely wanted was to know.
Well, as you can imagine, being a missionary kind of changed that. Talking to random strangers (a number of which later become good friends) about religious beliefs all day every day will quickly make it absolutely comfortable to do in every context. One day I was writing to my friend and told her that I had always wondered about her beliefs and her religious journey and I wondered if she would be willing to do a phone call with me sometime just to talk about it. She said that she would love to, and that (get this, folks) she usually just didn't talk about religious things because she didn't want to cause an argument.
We did a serious of phone calls in which we talked about her beliefs and mine. We got to understand how we both came to believe in/not believe in God, and what our thoughts on life and death were. She asked any and all random questions she could think of about my religion and I answered them. And we even talked about how good it was for us to have these conversations with each other, how it made us both think about what we really believed. Neither of us changed our religions during that time, but I do think that both of us changed. Having these conversations is a great opportunity to learn from those around us and even from ourselves.
So I guess if I had any invitation to give it would be that. Don't be afraid of talking about what you believe; in fact, seek out opportunities to do it. It will be hard to get other people on board at first, but it's just because they're afraid. Maybe if we make it clear that we have no intention or desire to cause an argument that will help. Maybe it will just take some explaining: "Hey, my religion means a lot to me so I just like to talk about it a lot. I like to learn about what other people believe too. I think it's so fascinating how much can be learned from what other people believe." I think that is what the majority of people want out of religious conversations, but they are afraid that others will perceive it the wrong way. If we all work together, there's a lot we can learn from each other. We can be united just as God intends us to.
Thanks and much love!
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