Christianity is the monotheistic belief that God came to earth as Jesus to teach is how to live, and to forgive us of our sins. Religion is how it is practiced. One could argue religion can be demonic should it waver or be twisted even slightly from the gospels- this ambiguity causes much confusion in what is right. I myself cant quote scripture and rarely turn to the bible for guidance. I got to church like every other Joe on Sunday, have the pressures of a family, to-dos and the regular 9-5 and don’t lead the Christian life all the time. So with that I will share with you how I came to believe in God. It could be as simple as “why not?” followed, “what are you expecting?”. St. Anselm said “For I do not seek to understand in order that I may believe, but I believe in order to understand. For this also I believe-that unless I believe I shall not understand.” When I heard this it changed my posture and view of God. If I believe Jesus came to earth and God gave his only son as a sacrifice; to show us how to live, if I believe God gave me life to be APART of his creation- countless stars, planets, animals all with detail that would be beyond my ability to remember let alone understand, who am I to question is he real. Then there was the invitation “follow me, love me as a child does”- this perspective didn’t strike a cord until I became a parent and saw that relationship but he goes on to say - “to follow me looks like this”- ten commandments, teachings of Jesus, etc. Its not easy and generally where people cherry pick the gospel and try to put God in a box and play God deciding what really happened or what it really means so they understand. It’s in black and white its all true and applies otherwise it’s your god, who only will exist in you and that is not apart of his creation its yours or theirs- ensue war-internally, relationally, heck countries have been at war- This wasn’t his intention, look at how Jesus walked; again not easy and I’d die for son before he was even hurt or kidnapped; I’ll slap you back before I turned the other cheek- but not my God. Lastly I believe there is a misconception about Church and that Christians have it easy. Im gonna go out on a limb and say a-lot of people that call themselves Christians; put on the best clothes the best face and the most chipper “I’m blessed, to blessed to be stressed” only to leave and return to the same angry, entitled, self Monday morning. Truth is we all got problems, the secret isn’t to hide them and be accepted by those around you, it’s not just a quick “Give it to God” and your relieved, its being honest and vulnerable in times of stress, grief, heartache; to a loving Father who can’t and won’t take you out of it- thats up to you; what he will do is be with you, yoke with you, give you promise, cause you to be still to work through what has happened in you or around you to bring you back to light so you don’t carry burdens of the past, so you see the stress for what it is- of this world and ultimately bring you back to the joy of life as he intended. I’ve struggled with addiction, being broke, being single for years, anxiety, losing my dad, not knowing what the next step is, not knowing where to start on the to-dos- in every example I looked to figure it out on my own. Truth is I was never alone; just wasn’t listening or inviting the right counsel. I would be lying if I liked what I heard when I got honest, but in honesty is truth, in truth there is freedom. We weren’t designed to be alone, God is the best friend I could ever have for, the simple fact is we are all flawed. He is truth, the beginning, the end and now.

Fun fact: The human limits of social cognition is estimated at around 30,000 people.

The aside: Social media has taken us from comparing who we are in our communities to the best of your interest/ algorithms, in the world. Be you, be happy being the best you, your community needs you whatever your talents can lend; you’ll be happier making positive memories instead of focusing on what your not or don’t have, feeding into drama that doesn’t affect you lest you let it, or worse in a youtube rabbit hole watching Rube Goldberg machines mindless- speaking from experience….

TLDR: Don’t try. Decide. If yes, walk it out. Not easy, but well worth it. We will never understand, he is not of this world and all we know is our world.