RIDING THE WAVE

Moncton Times &Transcript Faith Today, Sat Nov 23rd 2015

I watched a movie last night in which the main character did not believe in God. That actually had very little to do with the plot, it was simply part of who he was – and it played off the fact that his best friend was religious.

So when one said, you gotta thank God because we are so blessed – the other says – you gotta do what now? I worked hard for this!

It is one of the questions I have heard played out the most between people who are religious and people who are not. Whether what we have is a gift from God or the result of our hard work. And it plays out in many, many ways.

Did you meet the love of your life by random happenstance, or were you destined to be together? Did your praying for success help you to get to the top of the business ladder or was it the devotion to your job? Did you get sick because God is punishing you or because you smoke a pack a day?

One of the things I find interesting about all of this is that the people involved in these type of discussions, or arguments, are often talking past each other. They are assuming that one person is saying something so different, so black and white, that they cannot agree.

For example – do you think God is a puppet master and you have no free will, no choice, God controls you through telepathy? Not many people in the world really believe that I bet. But all of a sudden when someone says that God has blessed them with a new job that is what I start thinking in my head. I instantly jump to the conclusion that they believe something that is so far opposite of me that there is no way we can come to a common ground.

I have said before that I think language and communication are a big problem in religion. Now I am taking it a step further and saying that preconceptions are a big problem. We think we know what someone is saying or thinking or believing when we hear the way they speak. That happens because WE have a preconceived notion of what the words mean that the other person probably does not share.

What is heaven? Do you know how many answers there are to that question? What is an Angel? What does it mean to have faith? How does God act in the world? What is God? If we really took the time to stop and think we would realize that there are as many different definitions of simple terms as there are people with a mind to think them up.

For some people heaven is a place in the clouds with white buildings and golden streets, for others they are picturing open fields and sunny skies, some people are simply picturing a roof over their heads and food to eat. And heaven is populated with everything in between. So when someone says the word – what do they mean?

Back to our guy in the movie. He was fighting against his friend's belief that everything happens for a reason. And he was right to do so. Some things just happen. But neither position is right in its extreme – all of life is not random luck – some of it seems to follow some purpose or higher power. There are times I do things without knowing why and it turns out it was very important, like phone someone randomly only to find out they are going through a hard time.

All of this is just to again say don't think you have all the answers – and certainly stop thinking you know what the people you argue with mean. Truth is we are all on a journey of discovery and the world has no easy answers, we ride the wave the best we can.