Faith, and Some Different Points of View

I stopped and chatted with some neighbors last night as Charlie and I were finishing our walk. They were in their driveway working on a craft project for their church. They said the church they attend is made up of mostly military families and is led by a former Army chaplain. They talked a little about their current sermon series and what they liked about their church. It was a bit of a sales pitch and while I could appreciate that, I had to tell them that even though I'm a very spiritual person, at this point in my life I simply have so little desire to be involved in a church again. I didn't tell them that my beliefs no longer align well with Christian orthodoxy. I'm leaning now toward a belief in reincarnation. I find that option an interesting one to contemplate. Nobody among us knows for sure what's on the other side but many will say they do, just as I used to think I did. 

A snapshot of where I'm at at this point in my life. 

I still feel that there's a higher power at work behind the scenes of my life—I've felt that since I was a young adult. My faith journey has brought me to a place where I'm no longer so certain what that higher power looks like the way I once was. I'm troubled when I talk about a higher power in my life because shouldn't there be that same higher power behind the scenes in the lives of those living in war-torn Syria, or Haiti, or other desperate places on our planet? What about those people? What faith are they clinging to? Is merely surviving to see another day all they ask for or expect? 

I used to believe that the Bible was inerrant—that it is without fault. I no longer feel that way. It's the writings of Moses in the first 5 books of the Bible that cause me to believe that clearly parts of it are not inspired by God, but rather, men putting in writing their rules and beliefs. Were all of those animals sacrificed to the Lord in the Old Testament really pleasing to him? Why? Because Moses said so?

I have difficulty reconciling God in the Old Testament with Jesus in the New Testament? To me, they appear diametrically opposed to one another in some glaring ways. A God of wrath and a God of love? Shouldn't we all at some point question a religion we've been born into? I suppose if I stuck to the New Testament and the uplifting passages there I would be in a different place concerning Christianity, but that's not me. I have to read the entire canon of scripture and when I do that, I see a Bible riddled with passages that make me cringe and question what I'm reading or even why I'm reading it. 

When I look around at our world and see how, especially here in the U.S., Christian conservatives have made a mockery of what it means to follow Jesus, I can't help but wonder if man hasn't so thoroughly corrupted the Bible and the church itself from the very beginning. What if the messenger of old like the messenger of today had an ax to grind and an agenda to keep? Perhaps their intentions were for the greater good, but were they really receiving instruction from God? I have my doubts.

Switching gears.

Rachel came and picked up PJ on Friday. We're going to miss that little dickens! He's so much fun and is such a little love. He and Charlie became good buds during the week and a half that PJ was with us and that's a little unusual for Charlie. They didn't play together but when I saw one, I usually saw the other. And Charlie did a good job of allowing PJ to be his obnoxious, playful self at times. 🙂

I bought a selfie stick! Haha, oh, I know, I'm about ten years behind the times! I bought it to take with me on my rides when I'm looking to capture a different perspective for my videos. I've seen where other cyclists will sometimes have scenes of themselves in their videos—something that always seemed a little cheesy to me when I'd pause to think about it—but it works. In all of my other videos, I've been out of the reach of my GoPro's lens. But not anymore. Occasionally I'm going to go through the several extra steps it takes to get myself in the video. 

My selfie stick has a tripod that folds out and allows me to get my GoPro up off the ground for a scene as I cycle past the little camera. Also, the extended selfie stick allows me to capture some perspectives on video while I'm riding that I've not been able to get before, such as holding my GoPro just above the road's surface—that sort of thing. Look for what I did with it in the 2nd video below titled "Some Different Points of View". I'm happy with the results. 

I rode with Jason and Hynek in the Fulton Gran Fondo on Saturday. It was a little over 106 miles (170 km) of some of the most fun and most physical riding I've done all year. It was a blast! My legs were feeling good at the start, as were Jason's so we decided to work our way toward the front of the group of a few hundred riders and work with the riders there to better our speed. We hung with them through the first 50 miles into about a 12 mph (19 kph) headwind before finding another group, just a tad slower, to work with. I commented afterward that that may have been my last longish ride of the year. 

Who am I kidding!? 😁

That's all I've got.