People believe in many different things. Some people believe in God, some in Buddha, some in other spiritual beings. All around me are people who have so much faith in religion and it’s interesting to see and hear about because when I was in high school people weren’t as open about their religion as the people in college. Although, I suppose it helps that I got to a Methodist-affiliated college.
I have gone to church my whole life. Every Sunday growing up I went to church with my mom and my brother unless there was some reason I couldn’t go, such as a band or choir trip. I love my church family back home and love getting to see them when I go home for breaks because they are such a wonderful and caring group of individuals, though the number of people attending has grown smaller over the years.
Growing up I questioned religion. My whole life I wondered if there really was a God watching over us. When I was nine my mom asked me if I wanted to be baptized. I said yes, thinking that maybe if I were baptized I could grow closer to the church and to this invisible being watching over us that I wasn’t sure I even believed in. I thought I would change. I thought I would start believing in religion. After being baptized nothing changed. I still wondered if God was real and I kept questioning if the stories in the Bible were real.
A week or two ago I realized that to me, God is like Santa Claus or the Easter bunny. At some point I have to stop believing and move on. Religion has always been confusing to me. How did it come about? What made people start believing in God? Why do people believe the stories in the Bible and when did they even get written down in the first place? How did any of this come about?
It seems to me that everyone believes in something. People say all the time that everyone believes in something, be it religion or science or something completely different. In my teenage years I didn’t know what I believed. I wanted to believe in religion and God, but it was never something important to me and it just never seemed real. I felt that I didn’t believe in anything.
But I suppose things change.
What do I believe in? I believe in people. I believe that people have the chance to go after their dreams. I believe that people are good. I believe that sometimes people do bad things. I believe that anyone can do anything that they set their hearts and minds to. I believe that everyone has a future. I believe that everyone has the chance to change the world. And I believe that people believe in religion. People believe in religion and God and the power of prayer and everything else that goes along with it, but if I’m being honest here, I never did.
Last year I started working as the child care worker for a small church that meets on my college campus. I remember one Sunday morning before church started one of the older gentlemen asked me if I had found the Lord yet. I answered honestly and told him that I hadn’t. He was surprised that I had answered honestly, and thanked me for it. He then asked if he could pray for me and I said yes. I do believe that he prayed for me, whether it was during that church service or maybe even that night before he went to bed.
There is absolutely nothing wrong with believing in religion. I respect it and sometimes I’m amazed by it and by all of the relationships that are formed because of it. I enjoy going to church sometimes, especially when I’m home and get to go to my home church, but I’ve never truly believed in religion. I never truly believed that there is a wonderful God above who is constantly watching over us.
And that’s okay. I am my own person, and you are your own person. You can believe in whatever you want to believe in and no one can stop you. Don’t ever let anyone stop you from believing in something.
