Just some thoughts on my mind as of late.
I choose to believe in God. Some people do not. And some people do not really think about it and are just trying to get through life. That is ok. Who am I to judge. I go to church because I feel like it has been a great blessing in my life. I gain hope, guidance in doing good and a love for ALL people as I learn the gospel. I am grateful for a belief in a Heavenly Father who loves everyone and has allowed us all to experience life. I choose to believe that just as there are physical, emotional, intellectual components of life, there are also spiritual components. A past leader in the LDS church stated that the spirit is just of a finer substance that we can not see with our eyes. That makes sense to me. Perhaps spirit can communicate with spirit. I believe I have had experiences in my life where I have felt feelings and have had impressions that are hard to explain but cause me believe certain ideas, feel calm and peaceful inside and that make me want to love and serve all people and do good in the world. I call this the spirit reaching me with spiritual experiences. I seek for these spiritual experiences, they give purpose to my life and help me be the person I want to be - happy, confident, motivated, kind, etc. I do not get these spiritual experiences by taking drugs or alcohol, or being in noisy and emotionally charged environments. I mostly get them when life is quiet, when I ponder, pray, read scriptures or other uplifting books, go to church, listen to gentle speakers, enjoy time in nature or just think about the meaning of life. People might rationalize these experiences in many ways but I cant deny that I have them and that they have made me a better person. So I will keep seeking for them.
I was listening to a talk by Jeffrey R Holland yesterday on the nature of God. I agree with his perspective on God. Many people seem to fall into pascals wager explanation of God. God is all powerful, all knowing and all harsh to the point where sense and reason are discarded and mercy is cast out the window for most of mankind. This is because God is capable and willing to infinitely torture about 90% of his creation for comitting a finite life of sin (according to many believers, sin includes not believing in the trinity). Huh. That doesn't really make sense to me. Others seem to believe they don't have to do anything. Just believe in God and you will go to Heaven, no need to repent or change for the better. God will live your life and will "poof" you to perfection when you die. Hmm, I cant seem to make sense of that either. I guess I try to walk the middle road, believing that God is equally merciful as he is just in a way that we can understand. If God defined love (and the Bible and other scripture talks of love), it makes sense that he would have to live that standard of love that he wants us to follow including being fair and merciful as well as just. The LDS plan of salvation makes sense to me because it says we choose who we become and we accept the consequences for our actions. The Savior will somehow help make up the difference in this life and the next, (perhaps by giving us more opportunity to get things right - resurrection), that is if we want his help, but we still make our own choices and live our own lives. And some of our choices bring about negative consequences and some bring about good consequences. Perhaps this life and the next is just about learning to walk towards the light or love and goodness of God. It could be as simple as that.
