Drive Yourself Crazy

You can drive yourself nuts trying to figure out which is the “right” religion.

As the pie chart (from http://www.ecentrify.com/discuss/religion/3statistics.htm) shows, there are plenty to consider, and that’s without sub-dividing Christianity into its dozens of factions from the Bible-thumpers to those that barely mention Jesus, or breaking up Islam into the multitude of Jihadists versus peace-lovers in that rather significant slice.

My personal beliefs don’t get a named slice in this diagram. Instead, they are in that small “Other” sliver. And even then, they are a hodge-podge of this and that from various named categories including Open Theism and Deism, but with additional elements contrary to each of those.

My beliefs just don’t fall into any neat, well-defined category.

And it’s also true that, over time, my beliefs have changed as my circumstances have changed. In times of duress and seeming helplessness, faith and prayer were in the ascendent whereas in other times when I seemed more in control of my own fate, while faith and prayer were still present, thoughts of “God-granted strengths and abilities” were in the fore-front as I used my hands and mind to (hopefully) good effect.

Life is not in a book; nor is God. Just as life is to be experienced in the moment, so is God’s presence.

I remain convinced He is with us. And He is available for help and consultation as long as we remember that His direction and interventions may not always agree with what we think are best.