Spiritual Journey Part IV

Good morning, readers... Is it a good morning? I know for several families in Newtown, Connecticut, it isn't a good morning. For those of you who don't already know, there was a horrible shooting in that town and among the dead were 20 little children. They were five- and six-year-old babies, for babies they are at that age still. They're still young enough to cuddle close to you, young enough to see the world with loving eyes and young enough to hope for all.

I'm not going to discuss the "how could this happen" today. It's too soon. But what I will tell you is that I have had a lesson reinforced.  There is, without a doubt in my mind, evil in this world. I needn't write why as we saw it in a school in a small town. We have seen it in a movie theater in Aurora, Colorado, at a summer camp in Sweden, and in events that stick in our minds and hearts.

For now, that is all I have to say.

The Spiritual Journey Part III

Hello again, readers of Peach Wookiee's Party. I apologize for taking so long in writing a new post, but real life has a nasty tendency of getting in the way. So what is the next thing I've learned in my spiritual journey? Well, the idea of suffering. In many modern Christian churches, it seems like suffering isn't really dealt with. You're supposed to suck it up and deal because there's got to be a reason for it. It seems every world religion has the idea that suffering is going to happen for whatever reason. It can be best summed up in five words: life is going to suck. Sometimes, it just is going to suck. You'll be going along, thinking your life is awesome and everything's going to work out great. And then, something just plain crappy happens. Can you figure out why it's happening? No. Can anyone else? Not really.

So how in the heck are you supposed to deal? Is it okay to cry about it? Ask God, "Why me?" Yeah, it is! Read the book of Job or the book of Psalms. The writers seem to be asking God, "Why in the heck am I getting dumped on?" Sometimes, there is no answer. A relative of mine maintains that suffering is part of human existence, and I agree with him.

What are your thoughts regarding suffering?

The Spiritual Journey Part II

Hello again, everyone! I'm sorry it's taken so long to update this blog, but as most of us know, spiritual journeys take time. I'm not expecting to figure things out overnight, but I hope to sort things out a bit quicker than the day of my death.

And so I come to my first truth regarding spirituality. The human being, in attempting to define his/her spirituality, is in a constant state of searching for what makes sense. A lot of people joined up with the Pentecostal movement because they felt there was something lacking in the churches they attended. They spoke in tongues and couldn't simply dismiss the experience. Their own churches didn't think it made sense, so these people looked for and formed something that did make sense to them.

I know I'm in a state of flux regarding my faith. I don't doubt that God exists and for me, Christianity makes a lot of sense. But I'm not quick to dismiss things that make sense from other faiths. I also happily recognize what Pope John Paul II said regarding Jews. They "are our elder brothers in the Faith."  That simple statement recognizes that without Judaism, Christianity would not exist. The place where Judaism and Christianity diverged was on Jesus' divinity. But does the Christian have things to learn from the Jew? I believe so.