It needs to be understood that when questioning our religion, it does not equal questioning our Faith or questioning God. It is questioning the understanding, interpretations and probably the possible agendas of those before us that have been traditionally relied on to show us how to demonstrate our Belief, Faith, and Service to God.
God is perfect. Human Beings are not.
We are able to see all around us regularly how imperfect we are. Even with our advances in communication how often are we supplied with incorrect information either accidentally or deliberately? How often have we trusted that we were given complete, accurate and unbiased information only to discover later we were being manipulated for a specific agenda? History is filled with such people and such misinformation causing trouble, anger, heartbreak and more.
Yet, so many of us cling to the interpretation, chosen materials and often second, third and four-thousandth hand knowledge of events that are considered fact as they were finally written down, copied by hand in less than ideal environments, and translated from language to language before they reached their current version.
Does this mean I don’t believe in the study of the Bible or the history of religion? No. I believe the study of the past is always good in understanding the perceptions and the actions of those who came before us. How they saw God’s creation. It also tells us how much they didn't know, couldn't see and had no opportunity of understanding just how vast God’s creation really is, how ancient it truly is and how small we really are within it.
I also believe that we are still growing and God’s guidance is around us everywhere. Yes, sometimes the results of that guidance may be misused by those who have been granted it, but that God is still speaking to us in innumerable ways and sometimes we actually listen well enough for the message to get through.
Prayer. What is Prayer? Prayer is speaking to God. It is taking a moment to allow ourselves to clear our minds and focus mentally on speaking to God.
They say that the human brain is an incredible thing that we are only barely able to understand. Our mental abilities still boggle the scientific field in many ways. My favorite is psychosomatic pregnancy: The need for a baby so badly that a woman's body will actually exhibit all the symptoms including lactation and swelling in the abdominal region. We are sometimes able to focus so much on what we want that we will show physical symptoms of it. Imagine what we could do if we worked together to focus that mental state all at once. Oh wait, we do, in group prayer.
Do I believe that enough prayer can assist in healing others, either from physical or mental harm? Yes. I believe that when we are able to come together and focus as one, God allows us to assist our brothers and sisters in ways we couldn't do otherwise.
Many would ask then why these prayers don’t always appear to work. My only answer is, they just weren't supposed to for reasons we aren't supposed to understand.
Growing up our parents didn't always explain why certain things had to be done a certain way, or why we weren't allowed to have or do something. Or if they did we weren't usually happy about it or maybe didn't fully understand why, but it was always for our own good. As we get older these things often start to make sense.
As we, a people, mature socially, etc, perhaps we will be given the answers and finally be allowed to understand. Until then, we will just have to be angry, sad or disappointed when things don’t go our way. Life doesn't always seem fair but I know the more we work together, help each other and not continue to hurt each other, the better things will be.
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