Tuesday, September 27, 2005

Religion is Too Important to Take Seriously

Casual readers of Fakiegrind might take a look at the blog on any given day and get the idea that I'm some sort of blasphemous heathen, apocalyptic, pagan, Zen, Christian, nary-do-well, skateboarding, homeless drifter. And they would be right. I believe in all sorts of various and sundried, tomatoee things. What I don't believe in, though, is waiting around for some endtime rapture festival of the self-righteous; that's the Endtime Adjuster's territory. And we only put up with him because, like Golem in the Lord of the Rings, he might yet have a part to play in the unfolding salvation of this wayward blog project.

Life is full of apocalypses and revelations; each new day is a miracle of opportunity for growth and change, even if it just seems like the same old thing. In Buddhism it's called "working on your karmic roots"--those intangible strands of fate and experience that we generate for ourselves from the unconscious regions of our personality. When enlightenment suddenly comes, it's only because an individual has laboured long and hard, often for very little immediate return.

I don't believe that any life is ever wasted, no matter how aimless, lost or tragic it might appear. I don't believe in sitting around, waiting for some miracle of transformation, but I do believe that we are all moving towards a marvelous destiny. And when we finally make it to that mountaintop, and look out see where we have been traveling all this time, we might realize that the City of God has been our dwelling place all along.

I'm only saying this because I feel like I've made, and continue to make, all kinds of mistakes. But yesterday I was standing there, cutting wood for skids when I realized that all of my "mistakes" were anticipated, pre-planned for, if you will, by whatever that inscrutable, deeper, wiser power called God might be. Yes, I screw up allot, but God sees it coming from miles away (it would be hard for the architect of human nature to be surprised by anything we do), and God is steering me home, even if it takes innumerable lifetimes.

6 comments:

Unknown said...

If you guys want to check out some cool intellectual blogs that talk about God go to www.gatheringdawn.blogspot.com
or timparsley.blogspot.com

Both guys use to be pastors at my church.

Anonymous said...

I still think you are too hard on yourself - making a descision which appears to be wrong to some people may be the correct one for you. You have integrity and you never intentionally harmed another - that sounds pretty good to me. I might be a little biased but I'm usually not far off the mark when it comes to knowing goodness.

Gyrobo said...

If God sees our mistakes coming and does nothing to prevent them, it constitutes negligence. I know this because I'm a noted theologian/biologist/sociologist/magician/attorney/cowboy.

Emory said...

I don't understand how you can take solice in "the great plan" God has for us.

There is no plan, at least non that we could fathom. We try to explain away good and evil like we avoid stepping under ladders. It's all just a vain attempt to avoid the realization that we aren't here for any other reason than we are. Nature knows no good or evil, it's only our judgment that makes it so.

I don't mean to sound like a downer. I don't think believing in a benevolent God is a bad thing, just not the real thing.

flatlander said...

Gyrobo, your logic is inescapable, as usual.

Mom, your wisdom is much appreciated, as usual.

Em, How do you know there is no plan? How do you know that we could never know it?

I'm not saying that you're wrong; I'm just wondering about the grounds for your statements.

I think that God's plan is for us to delight in who we really are, so we can say, with Sly and the Family Stone,

"Thank You Falletin Me Be Mice Elf Again"

My grounding for this belief is that it's a rockin' song.

Anonymous said...

If there is a benevolent God, by definition he wouldn't mind people not believing in him. So whether you believe or not, it's all good.