Alright, here is my “faith” post. If listening to me talk about my relationship to God isn’t of interest to you, then there is no need for you to read on. For those that want to understand my view of faith, here it is:
Those who know me personally, know that I am a strong believer in the Christian (specifically Catholic) faith. God has been a huge influence throughout my life. Without Him I would not have found the strength to keep my life going before I met my wife. He is the reason I became a writer, and the reason I keep returning to it when I let my life distract me from it. He has guided me (sometimes with an large hammer or an anvil to the brains) along this hard and often lonely path. He has taught me how to write, what to write, and why to write. He is the motivation behind the articles I write.
I don’t want people to associate my observations and advice with any specific philosophy or faith. I believe the purpose God has given me is meant for the general population, regardless of their beliefs. And I especially don’t want someone to disregard my suggestions because they believe it depends on having a faith like my own. It doesn’t. I keep my blog posts religiously universal so that all guys that deal with these things can find help, even or especially those that don’t find any relief in faith.
My experience
My faith has always been strong. I’ve believed in God even when most of the people in my life didn’t. It’s never depended on things that happened in my life or what myself or others have experienced.
As a child, God was often the only person I could talk to and feel that he cared. Neither of my parents put much importance in God. We never went to church or had God influences, but neither did they teach us that He didn’t exist. They seemed to just let us believe what we wanted. They encouraged us to wait until we were adults to decide what our beliefs should be. I always thought of him as a loving, accepting, and patient kind of person. It probably stemmed from the idea that God was everything that people should and could be if we were able to be perfect. I didn’t often ask him for things. I would simply feel safe and valued because he always knew what was important to me. If I ever did ask him for something, I would usually ask for strength to endure, or the patience to wait for his plan to take effect.
I would sometimes ask for wisdom to understand why other people acted as they did. When I think about that now, I have always had an understanding of the motivations of other people that went beyond that of my peers. I’ve rarely been able to use that gift to my own advantage though. On the rare occasion that I have been able to use that gift, it’s only been in scenarios that benefited that person.
I guess my relationship with God has always been one of a trusted friend who I could share anything with. I don’t tell him things, he already knows everything about my life. Sometimes I get encouragement from him in the form of tiny happy events that are beyond my control. He also gives me feedback when I ask his opinion.
For example: shortly after my wife left, I started to think this could be a great opportunity to pursue my writing more seriously. I asked God to show me in no uncertain terms if he wanted me to be a writer or not. Over the next couple of days, I searched for paid writing opportunities because “God helps those who help themselves”, in other words, He can’t direct my activities if I’m not doing anything for Him to direct. After searching for a couple days, I found an ad asking for someone to help them write something for their real estate website. The ad didn’t give much for details, but I thought “This sounds easy enough, I’ve written marketing materials for many of my employers over the years and they always seemed to like what I did.” I responded to the ad and continued searching for others. A few days later they responded positively by saying they would like me to do a couple sample articles. If it worked out, they would have over 300 they would need me to do for them. I’ll stop the story there, because that is the point I’m trying to make. I asked God to slap me in the face with his answer. I’m kind of dense when it comes to listening to Him. This answer to my response CLEARLY told me that he wanted me to be a writer. Regardless of how the deal turned out, and it didn’t end up coming to any money, I knew for certain that He wanted me to write. The answer was, however, very specific to the question. Over the next few months of trying, and failing, to make a career out of writing marketing materials, I discovered that His answer was “Yes, I want you to write,” but not “Yes, I want you to write marketing materials.”
This is an important point for this story because many people that I tell this story to say, “If God wanted you to write, why aren’t you making any money as a writer?” My answer is always “Because I didn’t ask if I would make money as a writer, only if that is what he wants me to be.” I firmly believe God will look after, even financially, those who follow His plan for them. I wasn’t following His plan. I interpreted His answer in my own way instead of taking it at face value. I assumed He wanted me to follow that particular writing path. Over the next few months, I tried a lot of other writing ventures I thought He wanted me to pursue. When I started to focus on this blog, that’s when a lot of other things in my life have fallen into place. I now have a large support group who have said directly that they won’t let me “live on the streets and eat out of garbage cans.” I’m still not making any money as a writer, but I’m very much at peace with my professional life. Most of my personal life brings me a lot of peace as well. That tells me that I’m closer to following God’s path for me.
The other reason I’ve always had a close relationship to God is because He taught me what unconditional love means and how to give it. He showed me that I have a choice. Through reading my bible and through positive reinforcement he showed me that I can resent, hate, and turn away from the people in my life who have hurt me, or I can love them and even forgive them and try to influence how they interact with me. He has given me the ability to use my gift of understanding people’s motivations to improve both my outlook on life and theirs.
For example: there was a customer that frequented the video game store I used to work at. He was loud and offensive every time he came into the store. I figured that he probably felt lonely and powerless in his life. He used a loud and obnoxious personality to give himself a sense of control. He could understand why nobody would want to be in his life if he pissed them off or made them feel uncomfortable. With that idea in mind I began to bond with him. When there were no other customers in the store I would be almost as loud and obnoxious as he was. I shared crude stories to show him I could relate to him on that level. After I judged that I had created some sort of bond with him I sat him down one day and said “Look man, you are rude and loud when there are other customers in the store. I like you and don’t want to have to kick you out so please tone it down when there are other people in here.” He reacted the same way as when other staff members said something similar – he didn’t listen. But, as time went on, I ignored him when he continued his unruly behavior around other customers and joined him when there wasn’t anyone else around to be offended. He began to crave my friendship even when other people were around. Soon, he started to have normal conversations with me in a normal tone of voice when other people were present. I intentionally responded positively to those polite conversations and even went out of my way sometimes to reinforce this new behavior. Of course, when the store was empty except for him and I, we would resume our usual crude interactions. After a while he even lost the desire to be obnoxious during those times too. I had used the gift of understanding that God gave me to influence (not change, he did that himself) this lonely, obnoxious guy into becoming a kind, helpful and considerate gentleman who would help other customers with his legit experience with some of the games he had played, even to the point of discouraging one parent from buying Grand Theft Auto for their under-age child. That had been completely out of character for him just a couple months earlier. By showing him the unconditional love that staff at my store and numerous others had not done, I had given him a reason to let his suppressed compassionate nature shine through. And it did catch the notice of my manager and the managers of 2 other local video game stores that he had been previously banned from.
God used this lessen to teach me that unconditional love is a miracle that can change lives. I have strived to give that kind of love ever since. Recently, I have been able to give that same unconditional love to my wife of 20 years who left me a little over a year ago for her childhood sweetheart. I have been able to help her feel my forgiveness and show her that I support her newfound happiness. It’s been hard much of the time, but when I started to show her this kind of love, most of my stress and hurt has resulted in some amazing healing. And, for me at least, God is the reason that has happened.
If this is you
You believe in God too? Awesome, that gives me warm and fuzzy feelings. Do you struggle with how that should come out in your life? There are many ways to let Him show in your everyday life without seeming fake or forced. Some share their faith by quoting scripture. Try the passages that touched you the most or the latest ones you heard from your faith leaders. Others share their views of God as they see Him or as they have been taught about Him. Many also discuss their faith with others within their church or religious groups. Some people choose their friendships based on their religious beliefs. Still others chose people who don’t share their beliefs because they provide them with a contrast with which they can test or strengthen their own faith. There are others that simply try to live their lives the way they think God wants them to.
These different methods help us to understand and solidify our values and beliefs. Most people I have talked to don’t agree with everything their church teaches. These different activities help to understand the motivations for those beliefs and allows us to make more conscious choices about our own values.
Whatever you do to share your faith, do so through love and kindness because that is why God sent his son to die for us. Jesus changed how we understand God’s laws so that we would stop using it to condemn each other and start using it to love each other better.
If this is someone you know
Please understand that everything God teaches his faithful is designed to help them love each other. However, we are all still learning this and what it means, so please be patient with us as we learn to love those around us. If you know a Christian, please don’t teach him that his beliefs are wrong, misguided, or utterly pointless, because doing so doesn’t provide clarity. Quite the opposite. It makes him doubt both his own beliefs and yours. Yet if you can show him the patience and kindness he is trying to learn, he will learn to love and accept others for their own beliefs, even if they aren’t the same as his. Through his own faith growth, he may learn that what he believes is false and change his mind on his own, but if you try to change it for him, all you will accomplish is discord and distrust in all things. By showing him love and kindness, however, he may decide that your beliefs lead to the life he is looking for, or he may learn to enjoy differing points of view to better understand his own values. Goodness breeds goodness and misery loves company. Please help our Christians learn what love means to you.
What it means
The core behind almost every faith in existence is: what does life mean? To me, God means love. He represents every possible way a person can love someone or something. Although some of his teachings are about different laws and ways to obey his commands, the primary reason for those teachings is to show us diverse ways to love each other and him.
It all comes down to love, and for him, it’s unconditional love. He loves everyone one of us regardless of what we do in our lives; it doesn’t even matter if we believe in him or follow his commands, he loves us anyway. Even if we leave him or do things to intentionally hurt him, he loves us and welcomes us into his house. His love is truly unconditional.
It’s the model I strive to learn and live by. I don’t have to preach or even talk about Him to share my message. For me, it comes out in the motivation for sharing my message, not the message itself. I can offer my experience and suggestions to everyone. The articles I write don’t assume a religious connection of any kind (except this article of course). My faith guides my life, but I want to help as many people as I can, regardless of their beliefs.
Dear God, thank you for inspiring me to write this article, and for continuing to bring me back to it no matter how much I tried to avoid it and distract myself. You are my greatest friend and the reason I’m alive.
Amen.
Please start the conversation. If anything in here gets you thinking or wanting more, just ask. Myself and God are both listening.