Most of my childhood I believed faith to be a religious term. If you have faith, it is in God, usually the Christian god. I grew up in a home that called themselves Christians, but rarely attended any kind of organized religious ceremonies. I was baptized and confirmed in the Lutheran church. Shortly following high school I began to explore other types of faith, though I still believed it to be a religious term. I started to gain more knowledge and understanding of different religions through a World Religions class I took in college. I was intrigued and curious about the various belief systems throughout the world. I started to "lose" faith in the Christian god and any organized religion. Science disproved a lot of what I was taught as a child through religion and I began to question a lot. But it wasn't until more recently that I truly began to almost loathe the religion I once believed so strongly in. I had experienced pain and heartache and I couldn't believe there was this omnipotent being that could have stopped my pain, yet DIDN'T. How could a worldly god capable of healing the sick and wounded just let my babies slip by and die? Well-meaning people would tell me "God has a plan" or "God needed another angel". These things did nothing but anger me. What a selfish being they believed in!
It wasn't until I read the book "Buddhist Bootcamp" by Timber Hawkeye that I started to see things clearly. The faith that had once escaped me was finally starting to resurface. I love the ideas provided in that book and many of them saved me from myself. I learned that faith is not a finite definition. Or rather, it can mean difference things for people. A term I once aligned with Christianity, I now realize does not have to be so. It may be just that for some, but it is not for me. I learned that faith, for me, is the belief in the nature and energy of the universe. The energy we cannot see but can feel. The beauty of nature that surrounds us both visually and audibly. The connections we feel and create with other human beings.
Love.
Love is my religion. Love is my faith. Love is the root of all things good. TRUE love is essential to finding true happiness and enlightenment. Love of thyself. Love of thy neighbor. And love of thy enemy. Without love, we will never make it in this world.
Love to you all, no exceptions.
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