“Sometimes it’s harder to do God’s
work than anyone realizes,” the old monk answered. “But what about you? You
said that you used to go to church, but not anymore. Why is that?”
She shrugged. “I guess I just got
busy. I also think I got tired of all the rules that they gave us in church. I
didn’t see the point.”
“If you want rules, try being a monk,
or in your case, I suppose, a nun. We have rules for everything, what time we
get up, when we go to bed, when and how we pray, what we wear.” With both hands,
he lifted his brown tunic a few inches off. “But I do believe that all those
rules are to keep us closer to God. I think that each person needs to figure
out what he needs to do to stay close to God.”
(From “The Truth Beyond the River”,
being released hopefully within the next two years.)
On my Sunday
blog, I wrote about the difficulty that some people have with organized
religion and all the rules. Can you imagine being a monk or a nun? Or any other
deeply spiritual person who has totally devoted their life to their faith? Even
forsaken who they are so they can remain on their faith journey?
I may run up
against a lot of disagreement with this next thought, but as I was writing “The
Truth Beyond the River” and trying to get inside the head of the old monk, I
wondered something. Who really has the stronger faith? The seemingly
super-devout person who has completely turned their life over to God and in the
process given up their own life? Or the believer still in the trenches, crying
out to Jesus when they are surrounded by heathens or those practicing a
different religion?
It is surely not for me to say. But sometimes our faith is
tested the most when that is all we have insulating us. Know what I mean?
1 comment:
Of course I would like to read it.
Post a Comment