Do we belong to religions because they help us be good? Do we belong to a certain church because it shows us a way to freedom, a way to be the best we can be, a way to live with integrity and values?
Or do we belong to a church or religion of some type because it feels good to be part of a group of people who all claim to agree with each other about something? But what if you don't agree with everything that your religion preaches? What if you think about things in a way that other people in your group would say are wrong?
Is it your obligation to the group to mold your thoughts to align more closely with theirs? Or do you need to just stay quiet, and keep those straying thoughts to yourself? Or is it best to speak up and tell others what you've thought of, ready for whatever response they may have?
When you are raised in or have come to associate with a certain religious group, how do you decide which thoughts and beliefs are truly yours and which of them is the direct product of being instructed and influenced by those around you, especially the people preaching from the pulpit? More importantly, when the words of God are being delivered to you through a man, a preacher, a priest, how do you retain the ability to discern what the voice of God truly sounds like versus what the man up front thinks the voice of God sounds like, or what the people surrounding you have come to agree the voice of God sounds like?
If you spend every Sunday in church listening to a sermon telling you what the Bible says or what you should be thinking about or paying attention to or giving your money for, how do you keep your heart and mind open to hearing God speak into your life in ways that might sound completely different, that might even lead you in the opposite direction?
Keep in mind that these are all questions. No answers. I don't have those. I don't necessarily need those. I love the questions; I thrive in the questions.
These questions can be rhetorical, and that's okay. Or not, and that's okay.
