What I believe part 2

     A guy asked me about my faith recently.  It led to quite a conversation.  My beliefs have really continued to change as the years have gone on.  Here was part one of my beliefs I wrote 5/12/15: previous blog It discussed creation, the bible, homosexuality, Jesus, etc....

Here is some of what we discussed:

1. Personal God, impersonal God, hands-on, hands-off:

     I think that my traditional understanding has always been that we have a personal hands-on God.  Pray and God hears you.  Pray enough and you can change things.  But the more I live and see and experience, I am starting to think that we have a personal God that is hands-off.  In other words, the world was set in motion and now its going and he is sitting back watching.  But I think there is a personal vesting or interest in our lives as well.

     Thinking of God as a father to all of us, makes it easier for me to try to wrap my head and heart around things.  If I raise my kids and send them off into the world, now life is up to them.  If they do well, I celebrate with them.  If they fall on hard times, I'm sad with them.  But should I be getting involved in their problems?  If I want them to stand on their own 2 feet, then I'd say no I shouldn't.  They are always welcome to come over for dinner, but don't expect me to hand out $ to bail them out of problems.  I have 3 kids, what if I had 3 billion?  Then I kinda need to be rooting for them, but not living their lives.  What if they beg me?  Isn't this kinda like prayer?  Does begging get me to intervene in their lives???  I mean it shouldn't.  Maybe once in a GREAT while I might show up and do something completely unexpected.  But it should never be expected.

     And then when my kids are grown ups, am I punishing them ever for their mistakes?  I'd say no.  I'd say life and mistakes are punishment enough.  I'm in their corner sitting with them in their mess, sad right along side of them.  But I'm not orchestrating a punishment for their behavior....  There is a saying, "sin is its own punishment".  I'm not ever withholding love or withholding protection anymore than I'm ever arbitrarily giving favor to one child over the other.  So why would God be any different if I'm made in his image?

2. Animals versus humans....evil versus altruism.....consciousness versus instinct

     As humans, we are animals.  We're an animal with a brain that has evolved to have a consciousness.  I think that when that happened, we became aware.  We began to think about creation and the start of this whole thing.  I'm not entirely sure how God may have begun to interact with us.  I mean along with consciousness comes the yearning to know our creator and the desire to make sense of it all. 

    Science will tell you (pretty strongly) evolution has occurred, that there were other humans besides us (homo-sapiens).  So what's the problem if a creator began the whole show and evolution took us to animals that became conscious-which would be in the image of God (the ultimate form of consciousness some would say)?  It doesn't have to be an either/or.

     So now evil as we call it, happens when we (sadly) embrace our animal nature and instincts.  But what happens when we embrace our consciousness?  Love, empathy, forgiveness, altruism.  Those are very scarce qualities in the animal kingdom.  They happen within family lines, but you never see a hyena calling over to the jackal to share the carcass.  So are you a conscious animal?  I am.  So act like one, don't just act like an animal.  Act with the gifts that came with the consciousness.


3. Other religious faiths:

     I think that religion is a cultural phenomenon.  I was born in a Christian nation.  Go back 2,500 years and there was no such thing.  What about those born in a Muslim nation?  Hindu?  Etc....

     So what does that mean?  I guess I don't really know.  If my concept of us being children of God is accurate, then maybe the new command Jesus gave in John 13:34-35, (to love one another and that is how we will know that we are his followers), is the criteria we need to use to decide if we are indeed following God. 

     What about all the other extra stuff besides that?  I don't know, what about it?  I mean there are funny things about us humans that makes us exhibit a tribalism that causes us to want to be better/different than those "others".  In and within all religious faiths a layer gets placed on top of loving one another.  This succeeds in turning the focus into an "us" versus "them".   The added layers might even be well meaning and well intentioned in order to "keep us on track" in our efforts to be loving.

     But consider that if we are children of God.  What kind of sense does it make for me to promote my kids to go off in three different directions of exclusivity (Christian, Jew, Muslim) if that is something that really matters?  Unless maybe the only thing that "really" matters is not how they worship, but how they love?? 

What I believe

         My daughter started asking me questions about God, heaven, evolution, etc....when my mother was dying last month.  What I believe now is a bit different than what I once believed.  I am going to write some of it down for me, her, and my other kids.  I hope that my kids can take what I put forth and then engage in their own journey and find what they believe.

     Let's start with this idea: I feel like I don't know anything for sure.  If you want argue with me, don't.  My favorite thing to say is, "You might be right".  I think that faith is the absence of knowing anything for sure.  If you "know" then you don't need faith.


     Is there a God?
I believe that there is a God that created all things.  The big bang may well have happened.  I go back to the question of "what was before the big bang"?  The universe arose out of nothing sounds an awful lot like a supernatural thing to me.  So if I imagine that time and space are something that God is not bound by, then he has always existed, even before the universe.

     How did the universe come to be?
God's creating all things may very well have been through an evolutionary mechanism, or it may have been through a creation mechanism, but more than likely a bit of both.  The account in the bible about creation would seem to be a bit of a simplistic explanation to a guy (Moses) who wouldn't have stood a chance at understanding the way it really happened.  I've told my daughter that God explaining to Moses the way he created things was a lot like what I used to tell her about where babies came from when she was 3.  There was no way I could tell her the actual way it happened, it would've been impossible for her to fathom.  If I stuck to my guns today on that story I told her as a 3 year old, she might think I was a nut job.  Do I think that the universe was created in 6 days?  No, probably not.  Does the fact that it is described like that in the bible bother me?  No.  Seems a reasonable way to discuss it with someone who doesn't have a clue.

     How do you know the bible is accurate and wasn't re-written?
I think that we've seen some fantastic information come out of the dead sea scrolls from the 1940's and 50's showing that things didn't change from the 2nd century BC through the version we have in the 9th century AD and now in regards to the old testament.  Then there is minimal debate on the new testaments historical preservation.  That said, there still is an issue with how to interpret what you are reading.

     What in the bible is literal, figurative, true, false, whatever?
I believe that there are some Old Testament accounts that explain things in simple terms that are metaphorical or symbolic for simplicity sake.  Things that would generally be true in principal but not necessarily in detail.

     I see the 1st 5 books of the bible as a constitution for the new Hebrew nation.  A manual on how to run a culture/nation that was issued to people who had been slaves in Egypt for generations and had no idea how to live free.  This would be a rule book for this new society to preserve them together and teach them what is in their best interests.  Is it applicable to us today?  Some yes, some no.  Honor your mother and father, sure.  Stone your disobedient children, probably not......  This would be a case of applicable then, not now.  Kept the rules in place and the society from acting up now didn't it?  But is stoning our kids for today?  No.

     New testament.  1st and foremost I have one authority here, Jesus.  What did he say, what did he do.  What he said and did is as applicable and true today as it was then.  It boils down to loving one another, period.  Measure everything else in the new testament (or entire bible for that matter) in light of the words of Jesus.

     Why the new testament?  Why Jesus?
I believe that there was a need for God's true nature to be revealed.  People were misunderstanding who he really was and what he wanted of us.  Even now a lot of folks think there is a disparity between God of the old testament and Jesus in the new.  Things just didn't come across completely accurate when the writers of the old testament put their pens down.  So measure everything in the old testament against the nature of Jesus and if it doesn't fit, something was maybe misunderstood or we might be dealing with a piece that needs to be acknowledged as not understandable or applicable at present.

     Why did Jesus get sent?  1. This is what God is really like and 2. He gave the new commandment of loving one another as a measure of if we are followers of God.

     What is sin?  What about homosexuality?
I've recently heard a good description of sin as anything that undermines love.  Is eating shrimp a sin?  Come on now, stop it!

     So how does a monogamous homosexual relationship fall into this?  I don't really know.  I know its not normal biologically.  But I also know that homosexuals can fulfill the criteria of following Jesus too.  So how can I condemn them?  How is promiscuous heterosexuality and homosexuality different?  Maybe in context homosexuality in biblical times wasn't ever conventionally monogamous like it often is now.  I don't know.  I just know that if I'm to love my neighbor...then its not my job to worry about it.

     What is heaven?  Who goes to heaven?  
I think that heaven is being in God's presence after we die.  I don't know what that's going to be like or how that works, but I think it will be great.  On the flip side, I think that if you do not go to heaven it means that you will be without God after you die.  And that will be lonely, sad and not great.

     So who goes to heaven....  I think that it is going to be a situation that comes back to what Jesus said will denote if you are his follower, your love for one another.  I also think that it is up to God alone and we would be surprised at who is and who is not going.

     The thief on the cross is a story that makes you think that if you just figure it out before you die, you're all set.  I can't help believe that it has a lot more to do with the transformation in your heart and less about your words.  And so deathbed conversions.....I just don't know.

     What about people who are other religions?
Are Christians the exclusive holders of the ability to love?  Can you deny Jesus with your words but follow him by your life?  What happens then?  Ghandi was a Hindu, a pretty loving one.  I think we also know of plenty of examples of people denying him with their life but accepting him with words.

     Ultimately I believe that Jesus truly is the only way to the father and to heaven, but I think that has little to do with where you go to church, how much you pray, and what you call yourself.  It comes back to your love for one another.

Good luck, bad luck....what's the difference

One of my favorite lessons, stories, what have you, is the farmer and is it good luck or bad luck...

"There is a Chinese story of a farmer who used an old horse to till his fields. One day, the horse escaped into the hills and when the farmer's neighbors sympathized with the old man over his bad luck, the farmer replied, "Bad luck? Good luck? Who knows?" A week later, the horse returned with a herd of horses from the hills and this time the neighbors congratulated the farmer on his good luck. His reply was, "Good luck? Bad luck? Who knows?"

Then, when the farmer's son was attempting to tame one of the wild horses, he fell off its back and broke his leg. Everyone thought this very bad luck. Not the farmer, whose only reaction was, "Bad luck? Good luck? Who knows?"

Some weeks later, the army marched into the village and conscripted every able-bodied youth they found there. When they saw the farmer's son with his broken leg, they let him off. Now was that good luck or bad luck?

Who knows?"

     This story means more and more to me as I get older.  I've tried to stop investing in my own outcome and realizing that "you just never know" how things are going to ultimately turn out.

     I think the most compelling proof of this is losing my job at 24 and getting separated from my wife at 40.  Both felt like the end of the world but created wonderful things in my life years later.

     Good luck, bad luck?  Who knows....

Why non CF folks think CF folks are jerks...

Why do most non-crossfitter look at us like we're jerks?

     The short answer...nobody likes a zealot.  

Zealot-a person who is fanatical and uncompromising in pursuit of their religious, political, or other ideals.

     
     Most folks believe what they believe and, unless they are seeking answers, its usually offensive to them to be given a recipe that they didn't ask for.  "You should really come to my CF gym...."

     It reminds me of my life before I came to my spiritual beliefs.  When folks would come knocking on the door to tell me about Jesus, it was at best a nuisance, at worst irritating.  ("Get these Jesus freaks out of here!!")

     I know a lot of folks that reject faith entirely because of their encounters with a zealot early in life.  You hear stories of folks that were "beaten over the head with religion" at a young age and grew to disdain it for a long long time, if not forever.

     So what is the answer in getting folks to share our love of Crossfit?

I think the answer is generally the same across the board when it comes to sharing our faith in anything.  

1. Work off of the principle of love and not fear.  (You're going to hell only works for so long and doesn't do much to create a love relationship with God.)  For example, mocking or condemning someone's exercise program is a poor choice vs. explaining that they might really enjoy coming to CF with you as your guest.

2. Be a beacon and an example without belaboring the point.  There's a reason people make the joke: How do you know someone does CF?  Because its all they ever talk about.  Strive for balance in your life and conversations or people are going to label you in the "fanatical zealot" camp.

3. Keep in mind that many people have issues with the thing you love that have nothing to do with you or what you love.  Folks that struggle with self acceptance and feeling good enough are often going to be reluctant to be vulnerable and try something new when it comes to exercise.  Just like folks with a skewed concept of God and faith will be very defensive and closed to stepping out of their insulated world view to look into different spiritual beliefs.  Tread lightly.

Taking the pressures off of parenting.....

     Blog summary: If God (the perfect parent) couldn't parent Adam and Eve well enough to keep them from bringing sin onto the entire world....how can you put the pressure on yourself to be a "good enough" parent??

     If you want to hear more, keep reading, but that sums it up.

     Ok, so I have a philosophy in parenting that not everyone shares...but seriously think about it.  God was the parent to Adam and Eve, he wasn't overbearing, permissive, or laying guilt trips, he was/is perfect.  So that being said, his kids still went their own way, made bad choices, and let him down.

     He had a contingency plan though (as we all should) for if they made the wrong choices.  It revolved around consequence yes, but with a lot of love and connection too.

     If our kids turn out great, try not to pat yourself on the back too much, just count yourself fortunate.  If they turn out as rotten degenerates try not to beat yourself up to much, they have freedom of choice.

     And speaking of that.....

The ultimate expression of love of someone, is their freedom.  God didn't put the forbidden tree in the back of the garden under lock and key.  It was in the MIDDLE of the garden.  Hello???

     They had freedom, they weren't living a sheltered life.  The tree was in their faces.  Do you reallllllllly think you can control your kids into being good and making the right choices????

     Do your best, hit the pillow at night knowing that you are as imperfect as they are and that you love them and are trying your best.  Life is meant to be lived, not controlled.