Sunday, April 12, 2009

What I believe...

In my church, it is often said that sharing your spiritual beliefs affirms and clarifies them, not just to others, but to yourself as well. With blogging friends of diverse backgrounds, I do not know if your journey is similar to or completely different from mine, but I appreciate how the blogging community allows us to share one another's experiences and life stories.

The past year has been one of opening up, both to myself and to a few close friends the many questions I have about religion. Although I come from a religious background, I find that knowing the "Sunday school" answers doesn't automatically ground me in faith and provide me a spiritual foundation. Recognizing the irony of being "religious", without always finding the "spirituality" within that religion, hasn't been a comfortable process! However, talking about it (and dancing about it!) has given me the confidence to face both my uncertainties and beliefs with greater honesty. This Easter Sunday, these are a few beliefs I stand on:

I believe deeply in spirit, that there is a spirit essence in all of us.

I believe that there are spiritual purposes to our lives.

I believe that the Divine Creator is concerned for us and aware of us.

I believe in change, that is is possible...(and possibly even necessary).

And Easter? I believe its message to me this year is that grace comes as we place ourselves in the hands of God, exactly where we are. (Thank you Dieter F. Uchtdorf, for saying, "The first step to discipleship begins, luckily enough, in the exact place where [you] stand."

I hope you find grace, growth and beauty this spring, whatever your journey.

4 comments:

Carol E. said...

Oh, this is great! I do agree that writing/sharing/talking about our beliefs helps all of us. Sometimes they are so muddled up in our heads, we need to try to re-express them so we can help them grow. WTG!

Alexis said...

I have different beliefs myself, but I love the way that you expressed yours. Beautiful!

Amy said...

Thank you for sharing your thoughts. I've enjoyed getting to know you this year and I look forward to more of our 'chats' soon!

Sandra Lundy said...

I agree with you on this post on so many points. Opening up and sharing (especially talking about) our different beliefs definitely helps to affirm and clarify to ourselves just what we believe. And for the past several months...that is just the point where I've found myself. Reconciling the spiritual with the religious is definitely not a comfortable process.

I can see that we do share your basic beliefs and just told a friend last week that I am so glad that my God is with me, right where I am at this very moment.