So It Is What It Is….

This is how it’s SUPPOSED to be...

Oftentimes I am blessed with the gift of gab. It’s unusual for me to be found stumbling around for the right words. This week, however, was different. I am completely unused to not being able to say what I am feeling, thinking, or trying to articulate. It was a most unusual situation for me.

I was speaking with one of my best friends, who, by the way, is the son of a Pentecostal preacher. We were working on a project together and went to his office to get the files from his computer matched to the hard copies I needed to edit. He had an evangelist playing over his computer speakers, which struck me as odd, given it’s usually country music or 80’s big hair bands that he listens to. But, ok. The gospel song ended and I asked him if that was church he was listening to, and he stated that yes, it was Jimmy Swaggart’s show that he was listening to. Besides being surprised that he was listening (my friend is not exactly what you would expect when visualizing the son of a preacher), I was surprised that Mr. Swaggart was even still alive. Bless his heart, the guy’s got to be a hundred or more…but no, after some research, I see he is only 77.

At any rate, I made the joke about how I would burst into flames if he didn’t at least turn the volume down. (He is one of the few people at my workplace that know about my path.)

So after kidding around about this, a discussion ensued. It was civil, and downright friendly, but this is where I found that I was at a loss for words. I had said that God comes to people in many ways, not just those outlined in the Christian church, and when I was asked, “how?” my mind went blank and I was not able to convey what it was I was trying to say.

In the interim between then and now, a gap had somehow found a way between the two of us, which breaks my heart more than I care to admit, but it is what it is.

Now that I’ve had some time to think about how I want to come across without sounding like a complete heathen (inside joke, as it were) or totally preachy, I give you the following:

God comes to Buddhists by way of Buddha. God comes to Muslims by way of Allah. God comes to Jewish folks by way of God, but they have a different way of expressing their faith. God comes to Vooduans by way of the Lwa or Loah, to Pagans by way of the hierarchy of their choice. Is anyone 100% right or wrong? No, I don’t think that we are.

God comes to those of us with an eclectic path by way of the trees, the birds, the butterflies, and even the bugs we don’t necessarily love because they aren’t pretty. God comes to many people in his/her own way.

From “Everyday Witch A to Z” If you look at the core beliefs of most religions – including Paganism – most of them start to sound kind of familiar. “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you” is not that different from, “An it harm none, do as ye will.” The threefold law of return is much the same as the Buddhist idea of karma. Most religions have rules (commandments) that forbid lying, just as the Witch’s Rede of Chivalry bids us to be true to our word.”

Further in this book I found a passage that I really, honestly wish everyone could get on board with, but we have our Fundamentalist friends that will demonize us for not walking the same path as they do. So, like a lot of minorities, we, too, experience a lot of judgment and hatred. But the following is something I read in the aforementioned book, and I can’t rephrase it better than the original, so here it is, and thank you, Nancy, for putting it better than I ever could have hoped to.

And to my bestie (?) that wonders how God can come to people outside of Christ? This is for you, babe:

“I believe that god comes to all of us in the form that we can best understand and be most comfortable with, so that we can all worship in a fulfilling and meaningful way.”

Now, I don’t know about the rest of you, but this is a concept that I can get behind.

Does everyone else besides me believe that those that worshipped before Christianity came on the scene went to hell? I don’t think so. Or at least, I hope to hell not.

Do I think that faith should be ruled by fear? Absolutely not. To my loved ones that do follow that path? Thank you for worrying about my immortal soul, but honestly? Ruling by fear is no way to run a religion.

Don’t point a finger at me, stating that I (or those of my faith) represent the devil. We don’t believe in Satan, or in hell. We believe in a unity that transcends most mainstream religions, which is why, I think, we are misunderstood.

Given the fact that this situation came up between one of my besties (?) and me? I don’t know how much further I can take this line of thinking before becoming entirely too emotionally involved.

I have always prided myself on writing on a neutral ground, and this particular subject has gotten my emotions into a turmoil the likes of which I can hardly describe.  While I love my bestie, I have to wonder if he knows me as well as he thinks he does.

I miss him, already, but I won’t twist his arm to see things the way I do, unlike some faiths that will threaten the eternal flames of hell if they don’t get on board. That just isn’t who I am. 

But you know how you are, and for whatever reason, I will love you for who you are, because sometimes people are placed in our lives for reasons that we might not always understand.

And while I don’t claim to know why you were placed in my path? It won’t change how I love you, and will always be there for you, friends or not…