A Matter of Faith

I believe in God. I don’t believe in the Church, but I believe in God. I believe that He is part of us, and we are part of Him. It’s like being a drop of water in the ocean. We are the drops of water. God is the ocean; water, fish, seaweed and all. Some people don’t believe that He exists. They say that they have not seen Him. But if we need to see Him to believe, then what use is there for faith?

In fact, I can see God everywhere. Whenever I have exams, I get these brilliant ideas which I know I have not read and cannot possibly have thought up during any other situations. That’s when God manifests Himself. When I was at my lowest and most depressed point, God arranged for me to see a film which changed the way I saw religion, life and myself. God was the one who subtly guided me into studying the Crusades and the history of Christianity, allowing me to trace the customs of the Church and to decide what was important/right and what was not.

God has a sense of humour, or else, I wouldn’t be writing crazy jokes which just simply come while I’m typing or writing. Whenever I write, I know he’s there, giving me ideas, inspiring me. I believe he has given me a purpose, and that is to tell stories and make people laugh and think.

And to believe in God is a beautiful thing. It shows us that we’re not alone. When life gets a bit too tough, and you can’t see the light at the end of the road, believers can put their trust in God and all of a sudden, it doesn’t feel so lonely, and the path is less dark. You know that you’ll be fine, and death isn’t really that scary at all because there’s someone who loves you waiting for you at the other side. And you know that if God decides to call you home, there’s nothing you can do to forestall that. If He thinks it’s not time for you to go home, then there’s nothing to send you there. There have been times in my life when things have overwhelmed me, and I’ve felt that life was impossible. I just stopped worrying, put fate in God’s hands and concentrated specifically on the one thing that I needed to do at that moment. It ended up all right. I wasn’t a failure.

I don’t believe in institutionalized religion, the place of clerics, canon laws. The Bible is simply a book of myths and symbols. I think the gospels must have some mistakes in them since they were written some years afterwards. I don’t believe in remembering the Nicene Creed set forth by the emperor Constantine. I don’t believe in the necessity of the sacrament of Reconciliation, something made compulsory by Pope Innocent III in the thirteenth century. I don’t even think the Eucharist is necessary if you are truly a believer. I think that religion doesn’t matter if you are a good person.

However, I do believe in God, and I feel that’s enough.

An unusual day, to say the least

Well, I’m having a weird day. I don’t know if it’s bad or not. Firstly, I received a review which I did not expect. It was not the content which surprised me, but the sender, who is enemies with one of my online friends. I don’t want to fall into the trap of ‘the enemy of my friend is my enemy’ because I want to be able to judge for myself. However, since it’s online, and people have alter-egos, it’s really hard to tell.

My calf muscles are aching because I exercised too much yesterday. I was stupid, because there wasn’t enough hot water, and I knew that if I got myself hot enough, I wouldn’t fear the cold so hence, I did a heck of a lot of exercise. I guess it’s a reminder to exercise regularly, and not binge at certain periods.

And I studied. Actually studied. It is so unrealistic that I can’t really believe it myself. Okay, so I was also eating lunch while I was studying. But I did take notes, and I’ve almost finished notes on the whole subject of Papal power during the Middle Ages, well finished as much as I need to know for the exams. Then there’s the Crusades, and I’m going to do all of the first three. And then I’ve got to do the Normans; that’s one topic I don’t know well.

So yeah, in between studying, slacking, writing and sleeping, I don’t really have much time left over for exercise. And no, slacking is not something which I can avoid doing. It’s an intrinsic part of being me.