View Single Post
Old 02-21-2012, 07:00 PM   #11
forty-two
Rose Garden
 
The Gospel is for Christians, too :).
 
Join Date: Apr 2006
Posts: 6,908
forty-two has a reputation beyond reputeforty-two has a reputation beyond reputeforty-two has a reputation beyond reputeforty-two has a reputation beyond reputeforty-two has a reputation beyond reputeforty-two has a reputation beyond reputeforty-two has a reputation beyond reputeforty-two has a reputation beyond reputeforty-two has a reputation beyond reputeforty-two has a reputation beyond reputeforty-two has a reputation beyond repute
Default Re: Jumping Ship by M. Pearl

Bit disjointed here - musing "aloud" - but my thoughts:

There is a difference in our *response* to our faith in God - what we believe, how we worship, how we act - and our faith itself. God creates and sustains faith - it exists apart from our response to it. The faith of a little child is just as vital and real as the faith of an adult - their respective abilities to understand it and express it and live may be wildly different, but the core reality and meaning of it is the same .

So when we grow up and start examining our parents' beliefs and practices, experimenting and exploring to see if we want to make them our own - in short, starting to make our *response* to our faith our own - that does not mean we are making our *faith* our own in some new and qualitatively different way . It is just as much ours, just as real and vital and powerful, at 18mos as it as at 18 years . We are just relating to it, experiencing it, in a new way.

And so I don't see any of that process of exploring our faith and what it means to us as "leaving the faith" . Might lead to it, but isn't itself anything of the sort . Leaving the faith is just that - rejecting God and one's salvation (or declaring that one never had it in the first place and has no desire for it).

I too had a crisis of belief in high school (which I pretty much worked through in my head, that being how I deal with things - I was very fortunate to be in a church that welcomed questions and did not cause me to equate my doubts about my faith with my faith being in actual jeopardy - things could have gone ever so badly otherwise), but though I doubted all over the place, I never left the faith - and in fact it never changed a whit - God was right there the whole time . And it was a beneficial, if angsty , experience .
__________________
~ forty-two ~
Possessor of The Answer to Everything and Solver of (Somebody Else's) Problems

INTJ: introverted iNtuition with extraverted Thinking
DYT 4/2: connecting intellectually and emotionally
Enneagram 5w4: a need to perceive and to feel special


Wife to my pastor dh (INTP) since 2003

Mother to:
dd13, 'R'
dd10.5, 'A'
ds8, 'J'
and two in heaven: miscarried 10/29/04 and 01/01/05

Blog: Lutherama

What we want is just one thing, not the thing.
forty-two is offline   Reply With Quote
The Following User Says Thank You to forty-two For This Useful Post:
Zooey (02-23-2012)
 
X vBulletin 3.8.3 Debug Information
  • Page Generation 0.04250 seconds
  • Memory Usage 6,968KB
  • Queries Executed 14 (?)
More Information
Template Usage:
  • (1)SHOWTHREAD_SHOWPOST
  • (1)ad_footer_end
  • (1)ad_footer_start
  • (1)ad_header_end
  • (1)ad_header_logo
  • (1)ad_navbar_below
  • (1)cyb_flashimagebanners
  • (1)footer
  • (1)gobutton
  • (1)header
  • (1)headinclude
  • (19)option
  • (1)post_groan_box
  • (1)post_groan_javascript
  • (1)post_groan_navbar_search
  • (1)post_thanks_box
  • (1)post_thanks_box_bit
  • (1)post_thanks_javascript
  • (1)post_thanks_navbar_search
  • (1)post_thanks_postbit_legacy
  • (1)postbit_legacy
  • (1)postbit_onlinestatus
  • (11)postbit_reputation
  • (1)postbit_wrapper
  • (1)spacer_close
  • (1)spacer_open 

Phrase Groups Available:
  • global
  • postbit
  • reputationlevel
  • showthread
Included Files:
  • ./showpost.php
  • ./global.php
  • ./includes/init.php
  • ./includes/class_core.php
  • ./includes/config.php
  • ./includes/functions.php
  • ./includes/class_hook.php
  • ./includes/functions_notice.php
  • ./mobiquo/smartbanner.php
  • ./includes/functions_bigthree.php
  • ./includes/class_postbit.php
  • ./includes/class_bbcode.php
  • ./includes/functions_reputation.php
  • ./includes/functions_post_thanks.php
  • ./includes/functions_post_groan.php
  • ./includes/functions_misc.php 

Hooks Called:
  • init_startup
  • cache_permissions
  • fetch_postinfo_query
  • fetch_postinfo
  • fetch_threadinfo_query
  • fetch_threadinfo
  • fetch_foruminfo
  • style_fetch
  • cache_templates
  • global_start
  • parse_templates
  • fetch_musername
  • notices_check_start
  • global_setup_complete
  • showpost_start
  • bbcode_fetch_tags
  • bbcode_create
  • postbit_factory
  • showpost_post
  • postbit_display_start
  • post_thanks_function_post_thanks_off_start
  • post_thanks_function_post_thanks_off_end
  • post_thanks_function_fetch_thanks_start
  • post_thanks_function_fetch_thanks_end
  • post_thanks_function_thanked_already_start
  • post_thanks_function_thanked_already_end
  • post_thanks_function_fetch_thanks_bit_start
  • post_thanks_function_show_thanks_date_start
  • post_thanks_function_fetch_thanks_bit_end
  • post_thanks_function_fetch_post_thanks_template_start
  • post_thanks_function_fetch_post_thanks_template_end
  • post_groan_function_post_groan_off_start
  • post_groan_function_post_groan_off_end
  • post_groan_function_fetch_groans_start
  • post_groan_function_fetch_groans_end
  • post_groan_function_groaned_already_start
  • post_groan_function_groaned_already_end
  • reputation_image
  • bbcode_parse_start
  • postbit_imicons
  • bbcode_parse_complete_precache
  • bbcode_parse_complete
  • postbit_display_complete
  • error_fetch
  • showpost_complete