Religion For Me (1st of September 2004)
You get something good(like getting an apartment), and then you get something bad(like bad news of an old relative). I know that is life, but don't they need at least a day or two between them news, not 30 minutes...
This close male relative of mine(who just got diagnosed with a braintumor) and I haven't had the easiest start, he almost disowned me when I didn't join the church at 7th grade. The first confession is what we call it. I already then knew I wasn't going to end up as a Lutheran. Luckily he soon realised what a sweetheart I was, and couldn't be mad at me. Though his former wife never forgave me. Hasn't even today.
It's funny how you can hate a person by a simple detail like 'what religion you are'. I don't and couldn't hate a person because she or he is Lutheran or Hindu or Christian, that just seems too odd for me. Maybe they think I don't believe. I do of course.
There is no one right religion for me, religion is a support building for your life, I don't care what colour it is, as long as it supports me. I have done a lot of thinking and reading concerning religion, and the more I read and the more I think, it starts to, step-by-step, make sense why people take religion so seriously.
I mean religion means safety at the end, and what would be more fearsome than losing safety that something gives you.
For example; You sit at home and you hear a raging thunderstorm, you think its good I'm inside between these four walls and not standing without a house on this field where a lightning is free to strike me. Or; You walk a street after midnight with you father or friend on your side, and you feel safe cos' you're not alone of the dark streets, where anyone might lurk behind the next corner.
That is what religion does too, it's a safety net, an outside yourself safety net. Who in this world would want a safety net that gives and falters? I didn't want one that gives at one point or at many points before this time, but when I came to know action-consequence, I changed my mind. I think its great having a safety net, but it cannot me too tight, or I'll lose something. I'll lose some lesson I have picked for myself. There isn't greater harm I could do for myself than deny what I want.
So maybe it's a good thing that you can observe religions, and stick with "the colour" that suits you and your needs best at the moment. For example, not many like wearing all red to a funeral or all black to a wedding. Changing colours is actually healthy for us. (And when I say change, I do not mean change daily, change yearly, change every 100 years. Sometimes you need, and want, to stick with your religion for good few lives, and there is nothing wrong with that, as long as you know deep inside "I want this" with a smile.)
I think the best advice I have been given concerning the ever changing life is this: "The only thing that will never change is Change itself. And even that is Change." Some things in life are predictable and some are not, it was our choice, and I myself wouldn't have it any other way.
