whiteflag
The Fly
Arun and RavenStar
You surprise me.
You mean my limited experience with people of all sorts of background and religious affiliations whom I have had intimate friendships with? You mean my limited experience of living in one of the most diverse nations in the world and being naturally curious and eager to get inside other people's heads?
You seem to assume that I have never once looked beyond my own nose about anything that I believe in since I was born. No matter how many times I tell what I have been through in my life if I express a strong opinion as a Christian then I am automatically limited and narrow minded. Is that it?
How is it that you know me and what I am about? How quick you are to find some little quibble so you can have an excuse to write off everything I have said.
I did not believe in God at all to start with. Then I thought that all religions taught the same exact things. I was a liberal, a politically-correct new-age poster child at one time. I did not set out in life to make the world fit into my biases.
It was Christians who convinced me to be a Christian by their greater degree of joy compared to my other friends. I didn't become a Christian and then conclude that Christians were just naturally happier because I am one of them.
And why is it that to say something is different or something is more is the same as saying that everything else is worthless? Did I say that no one but Christians are happy? I know my friends are happy from having spent time with them over the years. I happen to think that people of other religions are very happy and content. I know they are as happy as humans could be on their own. I used to think myself that I couldn't possibly be any happier or more content with my life and my beliefs.
But there is more happiness than even that. And its available not just to some perfect holy people, its available to all. It is truly abundant, overflowing pouring down on everyone who has ever lived and its still not exhausted. Its free and without condition except that we must be instructed in how to recognize it.
It is what Hindu holy men have renounced everything for but we don't have to renounce anything for it but our determination to do everything our own way.
It is the paradise that other religions are told they must wait for but a portion of it is here and now.
It is being with God now not later. When He touches us just a little, we must sing for joy even in our darkest hour.
This is what Christianity teaches us about God.
Christianity also teaches that God never meant for finding Him and being with Him to be as hard as we make it out to be. Finding God is easy. He comes to us and we have no doubt about it. And the reason why he makes it so easy is because we have more important things to do in this life. Our job is to ease the suffering of other people physically, emotionally, spiritually. This job can't wait until we have attained the perfect way of life and its too big a job for us to be worried about anything else. It is more than we can handle ourselves but we also must be involved. And so God in his Mercy lends us His own hand to get us through.
We all convince ourselves that we could never be as brave as our heroes. That we could never do what they do. But we can when God shares Himself with us. Everyone of us is quite literally a MLK or a Mother Teresa or a Gandhi. We are all of us superheroes in waiting if we unite ourselves with God the way he intended. And when we are united with God in the way the Hindu holy men dream of, but we are also energized into action to help others no matter how scary that might be, then this is the happiness that I am talking about Christians having. Most people on this earth don't have it. Because if they did, it wouldn't be the place that it is.
So yes, in my wide experience, Christians are happier because all of us are taught clearly, simply easily how to be happiest of all people.
And there is pretty much just one step to being as happy as we are. That is, believe that Jesus is truly the Christ whose teachings are therefore imperative and eternal. All the other steps to happiness then flow easily from that first one.
Renouncing your culture and politics and becoming a white, male American Pentacostal is not necessary to become a follower of Christ. Becoming a faceless conformist is not necessary. None of what you think you would have to sacrifice is neccesary to sacrifice except for your grudges and your pride. Because Jesus is the Christ, he is bigger than any religion. He is even bigger than Christianity, the religion closest to Him. None of the Christian practices or observances that you happen to disagree with are as important as accepting Him and following Him. Not the Trinity, not original sin, not communion, not going to church, none of them. It does not matter if you are a Catholic or a Baptist. These things are not what our faith depends on (though they have been known to very helpful to us) Our faith depends on the reality of Christ and on us following His unique example into a gentle but fearless service of mankind.
In the end the greatest happiness can only come from uniting with God Himself in order to devote ourselves to giving others happiness and relief. That is what being a Christian is all about.
You surprise me.
You mean my limited experience with people of all sorts of background and religious affiliations whom I have had intimate friendships with? You mean my limited experience of living in one of the most diverse nations in the world and being naturally curious and eager to get inside other people's heads?
You seem to assume that I have never once looked beyond my own nose about anything that I believe in since I was born. No matter how many times I tell what I have been through in my life if I express a strong opinion as a Christian then I am automatically limited and narrow minded. Is that it?
How is it that you know me and what I am about? How quick you are to find some little quibble so you can have an excuse to write off everything I have said.
I did not believe in God at all to start with. Then I thought that all religions taught the same exact things. I was a liberal, a politically-correct new-age poster child at one time. I did not set out in life to make the world fit into my biases.
It was Christians who convinced me to be a Christian by their greater degree of joy compared to my other friends. I didn't become a Christian and then conclude that Christians were just naturally happier because I am one of them.
And why is it that to say something is different or something is more is the same as saying that everything else is worthless? Did I say that no one but Christians are happy? I know my friends are happy from having spent time with them over the years. I happen to think that people of other religions are very happy and content. I know they are as happy as humans could be on their own. I used to think myself that I couldn't possibly be any happier or more content with my life and my beliefs.
But there is more happiness than even that. And its available not just to some perfect holy people, its available to all. It is truly abundant, overflowing pouring down on everyone who has ever lived and its still not exhausted. Its free and without condition except that we must be instructed in how to recognize it.
It is what Hindu holy men have renounced everything for but we don't have to renounce anything for it but our determination to do everything our own way.
It is the paradise that other religions are told they must wait for but a portion of it is here and now.
It is being with God now not later. When He touches us just a little, we must sing for joy even in our darkest hour.
This is what Christianity teaches us about God.
Christianity also teaches that God never meant for finding Him and being with Him to be as hard as we make it out to be. Finding God is easy. He comes to us and we have no doubt about it. And the reason why he makes it so easy is because we have more important things to do in this life. Our job is to ease the suffering of other people physically, emotionally, spiritually. This job can't wait until we have attained the perfect way of life and its too big a job for us to be worried about anything else. It is more than we can handle ourselves but we also must be involved. And so God in his Mercy lends us His own hand to get us through.
We all convince ourselves that we could never be as brave as our heroes. That we could never do what they do. But we can when God shares Himself with us. Everyone of us is quite literally a MLK or a Mother Teresa or a Gandhi. We are all of us superheroes in waiting if we unite ourselves with God the way he intended. And when we are united with God in the way the Hindu holy men dream of, but we are also energized into action to help others no matter how scary that might be, then this is the happiness that I am talking about Christians having. Most people on this earth don't have it. Because if they did, it wouldn't be the place that it is.
So yes, in my wide experience, Christians are happier because all of us are taught clearly, simply easily how to be happiest of all people.
And there is pretty much just one step to being as happy as we are. That is, believe that Jesus is truly the Christ whose teachings are therefore imperative and eternal. All the other steps to happiness then flow easily from that first one.
Renouncing your culture and politics and becoming a white, male American Pentacostal is not necessary to become a follower of Christ. Becoming a faceless conformist is not necessary. None of what you think you would have to sacrifice is neccesary to sacrifice except for your grudges and your pride. Because Jesus is the Christ, he is bigger than any religion. He is even bigger than Christianity, the religion closest to Him. None of the Christian practices or observances that you happen to disagree with are as important as accepting Him and following Him. Not the Trinity, not original sin, not communion, not going to church, none of them. It does not matter if you are a Catholic or a Baptist. These things are not what our faith depends on (though they have been known to very helpful to us) Our faith depends on the reality of Christ and on us following His unique example into a gentle but fearless service of mankind.
In the end the greatest happiness can only come from uniting with God Himself in order to devote ourselves to giving others happiness and relief. That is what being a Christian is all about.
Last edited: