Posted by Thinker on September 10, 2012 at 07:18:20
In Reply to: Re: Breaking down the fear posted by Extreme on September 09, 2012 at 14:38:17:
I'd like to think I do have something to show for my faith. Just last week, I did my small part to raise some $430,000 for clean-water projects in Africa.
However, "to show for my faith" doesn't mean that I took any photo ops to promote my own religion in the process. I worked with people of different religious backgrounds for the fundraising event and I never cared about the religion of the populations that clean water was going to help.
I do not feel compelled to be in anyone's face about my personal beliefs. I think that's rude. Faith to me is something that is very personal, strictly between me and God, like Matthew 6:6. I realized a long time ago that no two people can believe in God in exactly the same way. As I understand it, religion is all about forming membership clubs where people get together to fallaciously agree to believe in God in exactly the same way. And in that social dynamic inevitably comes money, politics, rules, power, control, defending interests, war and other horrors.
The more I learn about life, the more I realize that in most social settings, talking about religion or politics is uncool. All that matters to me is that God knows where my heart is at. Although I take inspiration from Jesus, I gave up trying to measure up a long time ago. There is so much truth to what Long Time Exer and MG said about just being. If you're that afraid people might miss it and really must "show" your faith, all you need to do is say, "God bless you" in place of goodbye. Nothing more.