I know a family in my church that suffered the agony of losing a child a while back and although I knew of the people and this young man also; as a non family member there was no way to really feel the sense of impending loss that they were suffering.
I cried several times during the time that Brian fought so valiantly to live and I wept at his death but only for the earthly loss that I and others sustained. He was valiant in his fight and humble in his demeanor and it was known to all that saw him that his faith was a large part of who he was and it grounded him even in his darkest moments.
As a parent I have had pensive moments when I struggled with myself and my God in trying to grasp a certain situation especially the death of a baby, like my niece Jennifer. I saw all of the gifts that God has given to me and when I see others that should have the same gifts and life and do not; then my faith falters a bit if just for awhile.
Currently, I have been communicating with my daughter Carrie and I enjoy our night time chat sessions. She is a bright, intelligent person that has a lot of knowledge and has probably the best vocabulary of any person I know. Her writing is exceptional and she can keep a reader locked into the thoughts she is expressing. I write well; Carrie writes extremely well.
In our discussions we have talked about politics; I am a staunch Republican and she is a liberal Democrat, she loves the liberal bent and I do not, she is into Buddhism and I am a Lutheran so there are not a lot of contact points that we agree on at this time and probably never will. I am accepting of it as best I can be and I feel that communication is a key ingredient even if agreement is not.
One area of disagreement is religion. Carrie was raised Catholic and has “fallen away” as they say in the religious vernacular; her prior religious upbringing is no longer a factor in her life.
We have discussed religion and I am sure that I have been on the pointed barb of many of her comments about the hard hearted Christians and how non Christians are more compassionate than we are and I accept her view even though I disagree.
But her hellish rants against religion give me pause. Many times she seems to be the poster child for all that is human and godless and that scares me. It is one thing to not believe in God, if that is what you choose to believe but a non believer should be aware of their words.
I am reminded of Pascal’s Wager “An argument according to which belief in God is rational whether or not God exists, since falsely believing that God exists leads to no harm whereas falsely believing that God does not exist may lead to eternal damnation.”
There is a lot of bravery in non-believers today because society has emboldened them but let it be known that if believers are right then Pascal’s Wager will be a harbinger of eternal pain and remorse.
Since we are judged by every word uttered from our mouths (and yes, I believe the written word also falls under this context) we should all, including me, be more aware of what we say. Our words need to be sweet because we might just be chewing on them for eternity.
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There are hard-hearted and soft-hearted members of every ilk. I think that has more to do with what kind of human you are rather than your religious stripe. So my taking particular members of this or that group to task is usually a function of their postion on something. I refuse to argue whether there is or is not a God. I am agnostic in that sense. I just don't think about it. I deal with what I can in my life, with my resources. One thing you and I can agree on is that neither one of us does good works to get brownie points. You're predestined and since I don't think there's a system where points are kept, we do what we do because we want to do the right thing.
ReplyDeleteAs for the hot-headedness, I came by that honestly.
As for me, why would I ever want to try to talk you out of something that gives you so much comfort and purpose? What kind of person would I be if I found joy in doing that? I prefer you as you are. You'd be a far sadder person without your beliefs and where's the good in that?