A story as old as time. Commonly debated and fought over to the point of exhaustion. It’s amazing that faith has become the scapegoat for hatred and all the world’s woes when central to the message is love. It’s almost as if the world is designed to stomp out any form of hope. [reads newspaper] Oh…
Truthfully, it’s amazingly hard to fight against all of the powers in the world telling you to leave God. The collective group think makes us feel that because of our imperfections, God does not love us. In fact, I’ve found out that it’s the exact opposite. I have sinned, failed, cried, lost faith, found it, lost it again, found it again, misunderstood, misread and just overall missed the point. Yet, when I ran out of all the options I could think of, getting on my knees and praying has helped.
To be clear, I am a heterosexual, black, Christian, male of African decent from the Midwest. I am as traditional as I could possibly get. I can openly say I want to be married and have kids one day. I am comfortable in traditional gender roles. I want to be the primary provider and protector for my family. I also recognize that I am talking from a place of relative privilege compared to others.
I also am more liberal with other messages in the bible. I have no qualms with my wife working and holding a job. I am strongly against toxic masculinity and believe it is okay for men to express emotions. I struggle with understanding the continuously evolving and metamorphosing LGBT movement but I accept it for what it is. I am socially liberal and fiscally…well, I need money first. Overall, I am simple yet complicated, traditional but modern and in the midst of it all I am human.
So where does that leave me with this guy?
Well, if you type in God on google, you will also see a lot of pictures of this guy.
Whether you think God is YHWH or Morgan Freeman, how do you come to terms with what’s in the bible from what is in the world? I am a master’s student at the moment and I’ve never struggled with these ideas as much as I have in my life.
I’ve been told by Atheists that I was stupid to believe in some “douchebag in the sky”. I was told by the Jesus Man that pops up on college campuses every spring that women and their “evil periods” were unnatural and they were going to hell. I was told by racists that God doesn’t love black people and I was told by black people that they spiritual and not religious.
All this makes me come to one conclusion: STOP LISTENING TO OTHER PEOPLE. Nobody truly knows what they are talking about. All that matters is that you somehow take every bit of information and feeling for what it is. Examine it. How do you feel? If you are Christian, try reading the Bible for yourself instead of just listening to what you are told. if you are Atheist, more power to you! But, the most important thing is to not judge others for what their beliefs.
If there is a God, which I believe there is, the only way you can survive in this world is to build a personal relationship. This goes beyond Church, the Bible, prayer, and meditation. This goes to everyday making a choice not to be perfect, but to always strive for it. The world can fall to pieces but you only must keep your eyes on Him.