For the next few weeks this is going to be the place for us to share thoughts, insights, stories, etc… about our current series ‘Towards’. My hope is that on Monday of each week you would read and spend the day digesting the “recap” of our Sundays Gathering and then Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday of that week visit this page at some point in your day to read and share about how you are connecting with the week’s theme. enjoy.
(*Reminder: this is a place for SHARING not debating, everyone’s opinions and experiences are valid! while respectful disagreement is natural and encouraged anything mean-spirited or judgmental will be removed)
September 19th, 2011 at 10:18 pm
I wasn’t at the Hub on Sunday and was bummed because I missed it; I was looking forward to the new series. After reading the blog I realized I am definitely not on the same page as some; but fortunately that is the point of the Hub- I don’t have to be.
My two words to describe Life/Faith/God would be fortunate & inquisitive. As a whole I am very fortunate in life; I have a healthy & loving family, a roof over our heads and food in our bellies. Would I quit my job at this very second if I had the opportunity? You betcha! Thankfully that is a small part of my life and at the end of the day it doesn’t matter, what truly matters is what I feel fortunate about.
I am fortunate to be apart the Hub community and have the relationships that have developed because of it and it helped me see beyond myself.
I used inquisitive because although I don’t know where I am right now with faith & God l look forward to moving in the right direction for me.
September 19th, 2011 at 10:25 pm
I think at least part the issue here is that that (and you’ve probably heard me say something like this before) humankind is dynamic enough that there *can’t* be one ironclad set of rules for the whole of us. This means that no set of ironclad rules can ever work, which tends to make religion, which clings to these rules, a breeding ground for negativity. Because of this, one winds up with a set of rules and explanations for God that don’t always line up, making it difficult to understand God, leaving one lost in a maze of questions than answers.
If you couple that with the one part of religion that everybody wants most to believe, that God loves us all and doesn’t want anything bad to happen to us, you wind up with the conflict that this “unconditionally loving God” is allowing horrible things to happen to millions of people every day. Now, this God, whose rulebook isn’t clear, who loves us but doesn’t stop the bad things from happening, and of course we wind up confused, angry, and bitter.
Now, of course, Erik is has a point. The attitude you approach God with is definitley going to affect the way you interact with God. This applies to life too. Jjust as every human is different, and we need to be understanding of each other and our differences, we need to learn to be more understanding of God, as contained within that one being are more dynamics then all of us combined.
September 20th, 2011 at 7:47 am
Ray makes a good point, but there must come a time when we stopping pointing fingers and take the reigns. I used to wonder how any God could let a child die or let an entire down be destroyed by an act of nature. I have been able to come to terms with the fact that everything must happen for a reason. Most organized religions, also as Ray has stated, hold true to certain rules and beliefs. My feeling is that we are here to listen to those belifs but view the rules as guidelines by which we live our lives. Everyone is different, we all see the world through unique lenses. I am lucky, my life has been pretty good so far…I know others haven’t fared so well. It is all Ican do to offer help when I can and try to ease the suffering of those close to me as well as strangers….I think we all have the tools to rise up past the hardships and see the “silver lining” It sounds corny but tomorrow is a new day. A spiteful and vengeful God scares me, but that is why i don’t believe that any god is spiteful or vengeful. we have placed those adjectives to justify what could just be bad luck or bad timing or natural selection. I don’t have the time or energy to focus on just the negative, i try to think of the good that comes from the bad, there always is one, we just have to look really hard sometimes.
September 21st, 2011 at 8:42 pm
My thoughts – I was not there on Sunday and I am sorry I missed this. I guess my words on the whiteboard would have been a little different. The words that come to my mind for life/faith/God are Hopeful/thankful/intrigued. I believe that each one of us is here for a reason and I am hopeful that I can fulfill my reason in this life. I am thankful for my Faith…sometimes it feels like that is all that I have to cling to (like when bad things happen to innocent people) and I think that is OK. And, plain and simply, I am intrigued by God. I don’t understand him, I don’t understand a lot about the Bible, but I do feel that He stands for good and for love and that is what I want to stand for too. So, I will continue to be intrigued and I will continue to try to grow my relationship with Him.
I am thankful for this community that allows us to explore things together and allows us to be open and honest with each other. I truly hope that as we grow together, we will have the aura of Fred Rodgers….able to communicate the Love of God to the people we come in contact with without having to say a word! Fred Rodgers spoke at my graduation from IUP and as thousands of twenty somethings were drinking champagne and bouncing beach balls around the stadium – Mr Rodgers got up and simply stated “It’s a beautiful day in your neighborhood today”……the crowd went crazy with cheers but then quickly settled in to listen to an amazing commencement address. It is my hope that although we will go through our ups and downs within the DC, our love and strength as a community will allow us to have more beautiful days than ugly days.
You guys are the best!!
September 21st, 2011 at 10:27 pm
My word for all three is CHALLENGE. My life is challenging. My faith tends to get shaky sometimes; especially when life throws me something challenging. I truly believe GOD is the one who challenges me. Sometimes it makes me angry. I am tired of being challenged. Yet, I know I am here to learn and the toughest lessons are learned through challenging times. Yep! My word is CHALLENGE!
October 14th, 2011 at 3:53 pm
On Sunday, when Erik asked us to place a rock in the water as a symbol of forgiveness for someone, I felt a sense smug self-righteousness in the fact that it’s been a policy of mine to forgive everyone. Over the years, I’ve gained understanding of the misdeeds of man. Each and every one of us is a complex contradiction, with a mind that struggles to maintain a grasp the order of logic, and a heart which is firmly rooted in the chaos of emotion. We all (well, mostly) know right from wrong, know the things we should be doing, and those we shouldn’t, but there will always be a time where we fail to be the better person.
Just as my emotions get the best of me, I’ve seen them get the best of others. I’ve come to understand that we’re all human, and none of us
will be perfect. Everyone will make mistakes. Some will be bigger mistakes than others, but this is the way we God made us. Just as my heart tells me that it would be great to drink more booze and eat more junk food, and I proceed mindlessly without thought for consequences, so does the heart of the drug addict, muderer, or theif speak in the same tounge. I don’t condone these actions, but I strive to have at least a modicum of understanding for these unfortunate souls, as they are all someone’s child, or beloved relative, and even though their hearts may be forever tainted by the darkness they have wrought, those same hearts will always possess hopes, dreams, and love.
While I was patting myself on the back for being the wonderful person who forgives everyone (if not always immediatley,) God shared a moment with me, and let me know that there was one person whom I had not forgiven. A person whom I have watched, day in and day out, fail not only himself, but everyone around him. A man whose life is a majority of mistakes and bad decisions. Someone so odious that I often watch in amazement that any person alive would ever have associated with him.
And that man is Mahatma Ghandi.
Nah, I’m kidding. That man is me. One of the reasons I’m willing to give the rest of humanity such a break is that my bloodline seems cursed with this twisted need to hate and critcise the world. I’ve been fighting it for years, but no matter how hard I fight, it’s always there, even if its presence is minute. Over time, though, I’ve managed to whittle the worst of it away.
My problem is that while I’ve learned to be less judgmental of the actions of others, I can’t say the same of myself. In everything I do, I see failure. My brain knows it’s not true, that I’m not this terrible person that I think I am, but my heart betrays me. When I overcome impossible odds, it’s just because they weren’t as impossible as I thought; If I can do something, anyone can. While it’s easy to forgive the mistakes and misdeeds of others, it becomes impossible to do so for myself, because I see every last one of them.
Now, this isn’t anywhere near as bad as it sounds. I don’t cry myself to sleep nightly because I’m such a horrible person. It doesn’t seem to negativley affect my life in any visable way, but I do carry this burden around with me where I go. As we sat in silence on Sunday, I realized that I am not so sure that I could truly forgive myself, knowing that I am going to fail to be my best time and again.
But, I felt God with me (call me crazy,) so I resolved to try. I got up and grabbed two rocks from the table. I placed one in the water, to symbolize the forgiveness that I would try to give myself, and placed the other in my pocket, with hope that God would see me through where I was unable to forgive myself.
Oddly enough, when I did laundry this week, everything managed to come out of that pocket beforehand except the rock, so it looks like the rock managed to make it to the water anyway. I guess that’s God for you.