I am not a Christian.<\/p>\n
Oh, I wanted to be. More than anything in the world, I wanted to be. I was 6 when I started questioning the existence of God. The only conclusion I could come to was that everyone else was wrong or I was, but I couldn’t decide which. That is a very young age to be in limbo. It was a very young age to be alone and sad and scared. I was not a part of a the community that defined my world and no one really knew it. I kept that secret until my late teens when I started my journey by coming out of the closet and acknowledging what I was not. I think I understand what being young and gay is like.<\/p>\n
People like me make Christians uncomfortable too. It isn’t my intention. I just see the world differently.\u00a0 First off, Christianity has been the foundation for our language, social structure and how we see time. To say that I don’t use this context to frame my worldis as foreign and uncomfortable as hearing that the sky is green.<\/p>\n
The other problem is that society can’t easily define an individual by what they are not. To say that someone is not a Canadian or not a volleyball player isn’t enough information. We need to know what someone is. In seeking this definition, we often an idea of what the opposite might be. If someone is not Canadian, they must be American. With Christianity, the opposite must be atheist or pagan, which are seen as being influenced by evil.<\/p>\n
But I am not Atheist.<\/p>\n
I used to be. It was one stop on my spiritual journey when I thought I was the bravest person in the world. I alone stood at the Cliff of Mortality and stared into the Abyss of Nothingness. But my bravery was not enough to stop the feelings of purposelessness and I was uncomfortable with the growing feeling that Atheists seem to be an angry bunch.<\/p>\n
But I am not Pagan.<\/p>\n
This was another stop on my journey. I could feel the harmony of nature and the warmth of the sun on my face and felt that there had to be something to this. And hey, there were far too many pre-christian religions practising fertility and solstice rituals to ignore. As I joined groups and forums to learn more, I started seeing the infighting among the Pagans as to which which god, ritual or object was the “right” one. I was no longer comfortable there.<\/p>\n
So what does Faith look like?<\/p>\n
Faith is believing in the existence of something after having some indication that the “something” is real. You have to have some clue that there is something to be faithful to. The stories in a holy book may be an indication for some. So might be the dedication of a loved one. Faith is not a religion, a candle, an altar or a song. It is not a statute, a code of conduct or building. But it is the feeling of certainty, the feeling of understanding and to some degree, a sense of comfort.<\/p>\n
I know I am faithful.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I am not a Christian. Oh, I wanted to be. More than anything in the world, I wanted to be. I was 6 when I started questioning the existence of God. The only conclusion I could come to was that everyone else was wrong or I was, but I couldn’t decide which. That is a… Continue reading What Faith looks like<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.themoxiechronicles.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.themoxiechronicles.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.themoxiechronicles.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.themoxiechronicles.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.themoxiechronicles.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=50"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.themoxiechronicles.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.themoxiechronicles.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=50"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.themoxiechronicles.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=50"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.themoxiechronicles.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=50"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}