Saturday, December 6, 2008

Entry #6


Question = How does Faith relate to the world in which we live? 

Faith is everywhere. It is something that is in every person, something that lives among us and effects us all on a daily basis. So many people have so many different religions, some choose their religions but others are born/forced into a religion. Religion does not necessarily relate to faith because someone can have a religion but not necessary have faith in that religion. On the other hand, faith can be exceptionally powerful if you have a strong faith in your religion. 
I think that faith shapes who we are and the perspective that we view/see the world and thus, drastically affects the world in which we live in. 

When I grew up in a public scho
ol (before moving to a Christian school) I was the only Christian in my grade. I was completely shocked when I realized I was the only one that believed in God. I had to adjust and I think that that experience really affected my view of faith today. Because I was surrounded by tones of children that did not know any Bible stories or what prayer even was, I kept my beliefs to myself. I did not want to be cast as an outsider. At this time I started hanging out with more of the guys in my grade, they were much more expecting than any other the girls. In 2nd grade a new girl came to my grade, all I can remember about her is that she had long blonde hair and the first thing she told our class was that she was a Christian. After I heard this I was immediately interested in getting to know her more. We talked, and I found that having faith and being able to share it with others is such a satisfying feeling. I felt like I had finally found a true friend at that school because we had the same foundation and upbringing. Later that year she moved to a different school but I will never forget that experience. 

Through her, I learned that faith varies and that being able to confide in someone else with your beliefs gives you a complete feeling. Also, from growing up in a public school where lots of bullying happened (especially to me because of my beliefs), I put up a wall. A wall towards people knowing about my faith and because of that I have never been very outspoken about my beliefs in general. I prefer to show my faith through actions instead of words.
 I don't like to cause a lot of conflict because of faith or other peoples religions. I believe in what I believe in because I know it is true and I don't want to criticize other people for having different beliefs/faith than I do because that is their choice. 

2 comments:

brian said...

Hey Rebecca =) Whenever I think about faith, different beliefs and globalization, I wonder if the world will come to a point where everyone’s believe in one thing and have same idea. The world is full of diverse ideas and perspectives but the whole globalization is bringing all the ideas and forming a new one, sort of like a union. What would happen if everyone agrees without any objection? Would everyone be happy and satisfied that no one disagrees about their faith? We certainly don’t want out faith and our belief to be biased by other perspectives. Haha I think I’m going off track so I’ll end this comment here. Good job with the post.

African Globe Trotters. said...

Great job! Your personal story is so motivating. Fellowship is essential to our spiritual growth and you articulated this clearly. Brian, you make an interesting point - this relates very well to our novel "Pyongyang".... I look forward to chatting about this one faith idea. Mrs.Mc.