Hi Being Me, I was trying to find your thread the other day but you don't seem to have one or maybe I'm a lousy detective! It is true, it always surprises me to recognize that "hey, I had an impact on people" and that they actually seem very happy to see me. All you need is one person to really make your day. Now, the trick is to believe that you are that person other people seem to see! As far as the spiritual crisis, I'm not sure where I fit in. I was talking to my friend about it last night and she said "Everyone has their own spiritual journey and I just know that since I've started to have faith my life has been better" I understand that, and believe that to be so for myself, but I just wonder how much we stuff down inside and pretend we believe certain tenets of any faith and is there a place where you can be truly genuine about your doubts and differences and still feel you belong. I think many people in churches go along pretending they believe certain things because they're scared to say maybe they don't. The problem for me is that I like evangelical worship style but don't like the atmosphere of "absolutes" while the liberal churches are more less absolute but their services seem to be more ritualized and quite frankly, boring. I remember once talking to my pastor about the differences between the evangelic church and the liberal church I grew up in. I said "in the church I grew up in we didn't even pray out loud when we're by ourselves let alone our loud in a group of people...and I'm not calling anyone brother LOL!" Those are minor things but when it comes to believing you must be "born again", there's a Hell God will condemn you to, that the bible is the literal word of God, Adam and Eve lived, homosexuality is sinful, Harry Potter is evil...I could go on and on. I'm not closed to some of these ideas but I don't necessarily believe them at this point either. How do you question when these are pretty much absolutes in the church I've been going to and any of the others that I've visited in the evangelical tradition. Hey, in many ways they are great loving places and I've been given a lot but...I just don't know where I belong anymore in the faith community, so I search. Anyway, good to hear from you Being Me, let me know if you have a thread going I'd like to hear more about your sitch.
