My Thoughts On Attending Church Today: So You Can Think For Yourself Too

in #life6 years ago (edited)

Today I went to church, and that's something out of the norm for me.

Close friends of mine would know I stopped believing in Jesus or the idea of worshipping a single entity to dictate the way we live. Heck, you'd know I can be pretty flippant as I make fun of religion too.

Nonetheless, I was happy to attend the service today. Here are all my thoughts and random moments that happened today laid out.

I hope you'd be inspired by them to think for yourself too:

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. I went to this church and service because my good friend above was being baptized today. He invited me a few months ago. I immediately agreed to go. Why? Because I knew it was an important event for him in his life. I was very happy to see him grow.

. Since I agreed to go, I could not help but bring up the fact that I'd rather attend his baptism than a wedding of some random couple friends.

I hate weddings. As sacred as holy matrimony can be, the state of relationships and marriages today has turned me into a skeptic. Weddings to me are just expensive parties that may or may not end in happiness, for divorce is very real today.

This baptism I know for certain was meaningful because I've seen how happy it has made my friend.

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. The worship session was, in a word intriguing to me. I could see and feel how Jesus and Christianity has affected its followers.

. But alas, this was one of the many reasons why I eventually rejected the religion entirely, that worshipping together in a group made the supposed unconditional love by Jesus to become manufactured and mass produced.

. And it is my belief that when there are masses, there'll always be conflict. The Bible teaching life to be in black and white is not something I can believe in again.

. I was playing a mobile game during service. I played it until my phone died.

. I spotted a lady crying during worship. Good for her.

. I don't want to get too critical here: The sermon today was encouraging, but way too anecdotal. Religion is always positive and helpful to its followers because they already believe it to be so. In my humble opinion, this does not make you think hard enough for yourself.

. The worship session was also rather sensational, complete with a band, video backgrounds and lights. It was practically a concert. How you feel about that pertaining to the simplicity of loving Jesus is up to you.

. I told one of my Thai friends I was going to church today. He's a friend who parties and drinks with me all the time. We also always talk about girls.

He told me how when he was heartbroken (LOL) when he was young, he prayed at the temple. Then he said it was good to believe in something and give yourself to a higher power.

I personally have a love-hate with this idea of the higher power. Successful people I know of always talk about giving in to a higher power or having faith in something greater than yourself.

I believe that we should give in to the unknown and realize that certain things are out of control, and that can be a good thing. But to believe in an entity you think only exist because other sources tell you so is not something I like.

. I must say that today was one of the happiest and safest days for me of late.

People were friendly. My friend introduced me to friends. They all made sure I was accounted for and rarely left alone. They made friendly conversations. None of them asked me about why I am not a believer. A guy helped me get my phone charged. Everyone took initiative to approach me.

This is far cry from the fake people I've met in fake environments, where everyone had an agenda to talk to anyone.

Despite the difference in fundamental beliefs, I have to hand it to the people in church today. They're way nicer than a lot of assholes I've met.

. Curiously, I wonder if there is a word or phrase used to describe the positive relationship between two parties which have a fundamental difference in beliefs and way of life.

. Today has served as a reminder to me that I should stop using ideas of being an introvert or even romantic notions of being the heroic, lone wolf as an excuse to always wanting to be alone to do my own thing.

I am all of the above, but isolating myself too much would only cause me to ruminate over angry shit and thus become more pissed off in life.

A good balance is always needed for yourself. I may not be a believer, but it was a great break in routine and I was totally down to do new things and meet new people.

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. This is my classmate from junior college. We were only 17 turning 18 back then. She has a beautiful daughter now.

She also thought my Venom tattoo was a tyrannosaurus. I have no words for that.

. On the bus on my way home, a lady dropped her iPhone directly on my foot.

Today was a good day for me. I going to baptize myself at home now with beer.

Here are your takeaways:

  • It's good to break routine sometimes.
  • It's essential to discover new things by doing new things and meeting new people in order to grow.
  • Despite fundamental differences in beliefs, we can still get along.
  • There's almost usually free food and drinks in church. I ate a whole spring chicken today on my own.
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Wow the view is looking really beautiful !

Wow... Great experience....yeah meeting new people despite the differences is pretty cool... I hope you have more time or someday to pay another visit to the church 👍👍