The question of the hour.

If I posed this question to many, most would choose the later.

But the irony is that most people don’t know what religion really is. How many people have actually read a spiritual text in it’s entirety or actually studied many different passages, and came to their own understanding of the verses, outside of another’s interpretation. How many people can really define what faith, love, truth and righteousness really are based on the definitions contained in the text of any spiritual book. Contrary to popular belief, I have met very few religious people in my life.

I didn’t really realize how much patience and effort it took to learn about God from studying a religious text until I started law school. In undergrad, I was allowed to read a few chapters in a book, jot down notes, and then to spit back the material, almost verbatim. The closer my words were to the author’s writings, the better my grades. As I was sure that this method of study would work for law school, I was sorely embarrassed my first week of classes when the teacher asked the class questions about the reading, but the answers were no where to be found nestled between the pages of our massive text books. Frustrated, I went to one of my professors to talk about my failing methods. My professor explained to me that I must read the text critically – formulate questions and rational counter-arguments. In this way, I was able to internalize the information in a way that was personal to me. I was able to talk about the material through the lens of my own experiences and look at the facts from different angles.

I began to read the bible in this same way. I began to write questions in the margins: what was the writer trying to convey by including this piece of information? Why was Jacob blessed even though he deceived his father Isaac? What is a birthright and why does it go to the oldest son – what do the duties and responsibilities of the oldest son entail?

Someone told me that spirituality is your own personal path to God. Basically, through your own experiences, void of any outside guidance from wise men and women or any spiritual text, you search within yourself to find the truth. I find this way much harder. Imagine someone tell a child that about life – you don’t need your parents, who have come before you and who know what’s best (most of the time), to help protect and guide you with their wisdom; just search within your pure childlike self and you will find your way in life – be free to roam. Or in school, a teacher telling his/her class that they don’t need textbooks, just need to sit very quietly and search within themselves for the answers. I’m not an advocate for the mind numbing tactics that poor parenting or a failing school system provides – but I am just illustrating the difficulties of trying to navigate through life without some foundation and guidance built up by those that came before us. And that is what spiritual texts are – love letters to the future generation from those of ancient time to give us guidance and understanding about our spiritual and physical existence on this earth.

Life is much easier when you don’t have to learn the hard way or reinvent the wheel. To me, I believe that deciding, in faith, to find and commune with God by using the wisdom and guidance that was recorded in spiritual texts by the prophets and wise men/women that came before us requires the time, diligence, and patience. Spirituality does not require this sort of life practice. Most confuse religion for something that men teach, or rather, stuff down the mind of the masses – no questions asked. But I know this is a lie; 1 John 4:1 says “Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world” and in Jeremiah 14:14, God spoke to the prophet saying, “The prophets are prophesying falsehood in My name. I have neither sent them nor commanded them nor spoken to them; they are prophesying to you a false vision, divination, futility and the deception of their own minds.” Most of the stereotypes of religion permeate the peoples minds and convince them that this is what religion is: the idea that one can be dunked into a tank of water and become a Christian is wrong – the idea that one can go to church and be a Christian is wrong. The idea that you can be born into a faith is contrary to what I believe through the teachings of the bible. Religious empires, like the Christian empire (through Catholicism, which means, “universal” – but that is another post for another day), Islam, and Judaism – these large scale efforts for dominion and total control over the way of life and thought of people, is wrong. It is written John 13:35 that “By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”

So to answer the question, I am religious. Everyday, I religiously strive to understand God and to understand who I am in his eyes. Studying, praying, loving, failing, hoping, sharing, obeying, questioning.

Philippians 3:12-14 says, (12) Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. (13) Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, (14) I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.

1 Tim. 3:14-17: (14) But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it, (15) and how from infancy you have known the holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. (16) All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, (17) so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.