Back to Reality

2/1/09… “That may be your God! But that is not my God!” The venom spews forth towards me taking me completely by surprise, and now I am humbled by the damage of words. These were words I wrote in purity and worship towards my God, but these seemingly innocent words touched an infected sore, and the reaction was to spew venom towards me. A day later my soul is still troubled. How am I supposed to use my spiritual gifts of knowledge, faith, encouragement, and creativity if this is what it can create? Would it be better for me not to write and share? I in no way want to cause this type of reaction in someone; especially when enough damage by a religion has already been done to this soul.

And now I know why there are denominational and religious lines. All of us read words, even Your Words Father, and we come up with different doctrine or different interpretations…but is this not why, or partly why? We all come from different upbringings. We all come from different pains. We all come from different experiences. This colors our perspective and not only how we see the world, but more importantly probably color the way we see You. It is so hard for us to put ourselves in other people’s shoes because we have not walked in their footsteps…so therefore we perceive we are right, really not even because of what we think is right, but just because it is all we know. What we know is all we know, nothing more. No matter how much I may desire to understand other religions or denominations, I am unable to relate because I was not brought up in the environment. In fact because there are so many different denominations out there it is almost impossible to ever learn them all; mostly because you have to feel them. Perspective is not found in a book nor is it found in one worship service. I remember someone close to me saying they once visited a Catholic church, once. And after that one visit, this person felt they now understood Catholicism. I thought, how can one understand the intricacies of the Catholic faith from one visit to a church service. Father, is it not true if we have not lived it, then how can we relate? We cannot…

So now I understand why words I wrote in purity and innocence for You to do glory can unexpectedly cause venom to spew forth…

and my heart sinks.