"If will not believe, you will not abide." "Faith is not an easy or convenient path."
Heschel once again speaks to me through this book. I like these quotes not only because they speak to me but because they also speak the truth. I know this for a fact, because I am proof of it. I lost my faith for a while, not knowing where exactly I stood whenever I tried to look for God again. Throughout that time, I didn't live a faithful life, I was as Heschel says, "devoid of the simple insight." I abandoned God, which makes me feel terribly guilty when I read this book, because I have injured: He who is so anxious to forgive us, so willing to wipe away the sins of his children. Yet, I never viewed it in this perspective, I was too caught up with "living my life" to the fullest. I was preoccupying myself with frivolous things, rather then trying to figure out the most important things in my life, like finding out the true beauty of God. Heschel is right, faith is not an easy or convenient path. It is far from it. Dorothy Day also commented on this, she said that people thought that just because they went to church every sunday that they would be assured entrance into heaven. It's not that simple, you can't just go to church one day, act like you are Christian and think, Well, there's my good deed of the day. There is much more to it than that, ir's trying to change for the better. It's going to church because we want to become closer to God and learn more about it. It's about trying to find ourselves through him.
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I totally agree with what you say at the end of your post. While going to church is a big part of Christianity I find whats more important is what you do away from the church- volunteer work, sharing testimony, etc...
ReplyDeleteThe end of your post, about people going to church because they feel thats all they have to do to be a christian, reminds me of that song "Everybody wants to go to Heaven, but nobody wants to go now." We tend to just go through the motions rather than actually fullfilling what scripture says we need to. You can't just be a christian sometimes.
ReplyDeleteI totally agree with you here. I think that there are so many people that justify themselves by thinking that simply going to church is enough. Like you said, church should be a time to hear God's word and to become closer to God. I also think that church is good for building community. I do believe that the most important part is the way that people act in everyday life and activities. Living the way that God wants us to is not just sitting through a church sermon, it's actually going out and performing acts that God would be proud of.
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