My husband and I had a conversation today about religious people. There are many of them in our world and I believe that many of them believe that they are on the right side of God. I can understand why, but I also can understand how this leads to a lot of people being led into temptation.
First, many religious people have been taught this idea that when they die, they will receive a reward, like Heaven or a punishment like Hell. They believe that their life is a means to justify the end. I feel like it is a fairy tale invented by humans to convince others to follow a moral code. Our life is the important part. We aren’t rewarded or punished at the end.
This idea of reward and punishment leads to temptation. Most religious people want to believe that most of the days of their life are good days and that they will be rewarded at the end. They want to believe that they live good lives. However, this want leads them to not be introspective about their own lives. They focus on the good things, and they ignore the rest hoping that God will do the same.
My thought is that there is no reward or punishment; we only have today and the rest of our lives to become better people. And because of that there’s no room for the temptation on complacency believing that going to church and making a donation is enough to get myself into Heaven. Instead, I realize that every day, I have new opportunities from God to learn more about myself, about God, and about the world. I have opportunity to grow and become a better person. I am on a continuous faith journey that never ends where every day I am faced with temptation, with my own sin, with my own failings, and with my own need for improvement.
I know that most people go through their lives believing that most of the days of their lives are good days and count toward their entry into Heaven. I don’t. I believe that most of the days of my life, I make a few strides to be better, but most days I realize that I have so much yet to learn and I have so much yet to grow and I find myself filled with gratitude because God has so much patience and understanding for all my mistakes and missteps. I am totally and thoroughly imperfect and I prove that every single day, but my heart is always overflowing with gratitude and love because of God’s grace in that He loves me exactly as I am. He allows me to experience this amazing life and stumble through it hoping somehow I figure out just a tiny bit of what He knows.
My faith saved me. May God’s peace reside in all of our hearts.
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