God and Religion - Their Place In Our Everyday Lives - Positives and Pitfalls

[3DOCTORS]

Been pondering again . . . look out!

No, hopefully this thread won’t give anyone a headache.uch: I will try to keep it “user-friendly” even as it is hopefully thought-provoking.

I have been noticing in some posts here, and then reflecting upon in my own life, a couple of trends about how we integrate our belief in God and our religion into our everyday life.

This will be geared perhaps more toward Catholics but I think people of many faiths might find some resonance with it.

We are usually taught in our ,or other religious training, about two aspects of God and religion which sort of tend to bring out opposite responses in our human nature.

1. God and religion as “safe” - consolation, a “soft place to fall.” A refuge from the world and its craziness.

This is good, we should run to God instead of, for example, drugs and booze, or whatever, when we are in need of comfort and answers to our problems.

But it can be bad if we think God is only warm fuzzies. If we fall into the error of presumption - “God’s not gonna send me to hell because I fornicated once/missed Mass/etc.”

1. God and religion as “duty” - things which we must do that make demands on us, aren’t always comfortable, may even be dangerous. And when we fail, we have guilt and maybe shame.

This is good when it gets us to be responsible, care for others, be stronger than we could be if not challenged.

It can be bad if we fall into scrupulosity. Or if, in our attempts to offer fraternal correction, get too carried away and end up putting someone on the defensive. Now some people are just going to be defensive (because of an overdose of #1 above) and we can’t do anything about that except keep praying for them.

It’s interesting too how sometimes our religious practice veers from one extreme to the other. Like, I find sometimes I get lazy on prayer and fail to prioritize it thinking “God will understand.” Or I compartmentalize it. I want to make prayer and Mass and Adoration and Scripture study the center and it ends up in the periphery.

Or at other times I get on my evangelization “high horse” and get all fired up and make all these eloquent arguments, but then later I wonder, am I doing this for God, or for my own ego?:doh2: Sometimes I can tell if the love was there and the Spirit was moving, but sometimes I wonder if I just got all wound up in words. And maybe God wants me to be a bit confused - maybe that in itself is a lesson in humility, who knows?

Well, make of my ramblings what you will, and there will no doubt be all kinds of various feedback. :idea:

 

[camerong]

Or at other times I get on my evangelization “high horse” and get all fired up and make all these eloquent arguments, but then later I wonder, am I doing this for God, or for my own ego?:doh2: Sometimes I can tell if the love was there and the Spirit was moving, but sometimes I wonder if I just got all wound up in words. And maybe God wants me to be a bit confused - maybe that in itself is a lesson in humility, who knows?

I have this same problem. I think its even a little bad on these forums for me–I find myself clicking back on a post to see if anyone praised my (name removed by moderator)ut! Yuck. Its remarkable how the devil can twist the weight of our attempts at holiness against us!

Regarding the dichotomy you laid out: what if it’s no dichotomy at all, but the things are really one and the same? We find peaceful refuge most when we are called to do things that are uncomfortable, and we indeed have a duty to always run to God for a refuge from the world’s craziness (when we don’t run to God as a refuge, after all, we end up running somewhere besides God).

Now I’m confused too, but if God’s ultimate nature is impossible to understand, maybe confusion is the utmost clarity we can ever know.

(trying to be reeally deep there )

 

[3DOCTORS]

I have this same problem. I think its even a little bad on these forums for me–I find myself clicking back on a post to see if anyone praised my (name removed by moderator)ut! Yuck. Its remarkable how the devil can twist the weight of our attempts at holiness against us!

Well, uh, at least you (and I) know we are not alone… I thought I was the only one…:bigyikes:

Regarding the dichotomy you laid out: what if it’s no dichotomy at all, but the things are really one and the same? We find peaceful refuge most when we are called to do things that are uncomfortable, and we indeed have a duty to always run to God for a refuge from the world’s craziness (when we don’t run to God as a refuge, after all, we end up running somewhere besides God).

Master, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life . . .
–John 6:68

Now I’m confused too, but if God’s ultimate nature is impossible to understand, maybe confusion is the utmost clarity we can ever know.

(trying to be reeally deep there )

Me too, and I knew it would be pretty confusing! Hope we can sleep tonight! :whacky: