WWJD?
I am very tolerant of various religious beliefs and practices most of the time. I think it is important to exercise freedom by choosing to worship anything you choose. However, something has really started to irritate me to the point I want to explain some things to people. That something is prayer in the Christian sense.
I understand prayer just fine and have even done it, until I realized some very obvious truths. My problem is that a person should have faith in their self. Instead Christians believe that they should be subservient to God/Jesus instead of focusing on what they can do for themselves. It creates a society that depends on God to guide them. God must give them strength to accomplish their goals when all the while who is actually doing all the work? To go a step further, this acceptance of being subservient creates a degree of control that can be exercised from positions of power. These people willingly sacrifice their own power for the dependence on God or the churches power. They lose sight at how many obstacles they have overcome because their faith is in God instead of what they themselves have actually accomplished.
If I choose to pray to God for something then what I am really communicating is that I don’t have faith in myself to accomplish what I am asking. Let’s say I choose to pray to God that I pass some test. What I am really saying is that I’m not sure I prepared enough to pass the test on my own. Instead of working hard I am now asking that magic fall from the sky and choose the correct answers for me. Maybe instead of wasting my time begging God to help me pass a test I should have been studying to the point where my faith in my test taking ability was undeniable.
Another situation is the dinner prayer. Everyone prays to God to give thanks because he magically made food appear on the table. Oh wait, that isn’t true, is it? In reality most of the people at the table worked very hard to be able to earn money to pay for a farmer to grow food and have it transported to a market so it could be purchased. The real thanks should be to those people who worked tirelessly to make sure that there could even be dinner. The real magic of the meal is when you stop and think about what it takes to get one potato from the ground to your plate.
The situation that ignited me was one of the “you will be in my prayers” varieties. What does that really mean? It means that someone is sorry you are having a tough time and rather than help they will think about you for seconds at a time. “Um, sorry you have cancer I will pray for you = that sucks you have cancer but I don’t have time or money to donate to really help you.” Imagine if you actually had cancer and someone said that they would volunteer at the next cancer fundraiser instead of praying for you. That would be pretty magical don’t you think?
What I am getting at is that instead of praying act instead. Act with trust in yourself and make a difference. Don’t waste time groveling for help when you can get it done through hard work. If you are sorry someone has cancer then show them by helping them. If you are thankful you have a home and food to eat don’t hesitate to reflect on all it took to make that happen. Take a second to pat yourself on the back for working hard. Take a second to realize how strong you are and that nothing has been able to stop you from achieving your goals but lack of faith in yourself. If you believe in God then how do you think he would view an empowered person who helps others instead of relying on a crutch? Imagine if everyone was filled with confidence and understood they no longer needed an imaginary crutch. Or you could take a couple seconds to pray for some magic because the easy way out didn’t get it’s name by accident or magic.
I understand prayer just fine and have even done it, until I realized some very obvious truths. My problem is that a person should have faith in their self. Instead Christians believe that they should be subservient to God/Jesus instead of focusing on what they can do for themselves. It creates a society that depends on God to guide them. God must give them strength to accomplish their goals when all the while who is actually doing all the work? To go a step further, this acceptance of being subservient creates a degree of control that can be exercised from positions of power. These people willingly sacrifice their own power for the dependence on God or the churches power. They lose sight at how many obstacles they have overcome because their faith is in God instead of what they themselves have actually accomplished.
If I choose to pray to God for something then what I am really communicating is that I don’t have faith in myself to accomplish what I am asking. Let’s say I choose to pray to God that I pass some test. What I am really saying is that I’m not sure I prepared enough to pass the test on my own. Instead of working hard I am now asking that magic fall from the sky and choose the correct answers for me. Maybe instead of wasting my time begging God to help me pass a test I should have been studying to the point where my faith in my test taking ability was undeniable.
Another situation is the dinner prayer. Everyone prays to God to give thanks because he magically made food appear on the table. Oh wait, that isn’t true, is it? In reality most of the people at the table worked very hard to be able to earn money to pay for a farmer to grow food and have it transported to a market so it could be purchased. The real thanks should be to those people who worked tirelessly to make sure that there could even be dinner. The real magic of the meal is when you stop and think about what it takes to get one potato from the ground to your plate.
The situation that ignited me was one of the “you will be in my prayers” varieties. What does that really mean? It means that someone is sorry you are having a tough time and rather than help they will think about you for seconds at a time. “Um, sorry you have cancer I will pray for you = that sucks you have cancer but I don’t have time or money to donate to really help you.” Imagine if you actually had cancer and someone said that they would volunteer at the next cancer fundraiser instead of praying for you. That would be pretty magical don’t you think?
What I am getting at is that instead of praying act instead. Act with trust in yourself and make a difference. Don’t waste time groveling for help when you can get it done through hard work. If you are sorry someone has cancer then show them by helping them. If you are thankful you have a home and food to eat don’t hesitate to reflect on all it took to make that happen. Take a second to pat yourself on the back for working hard. Take a second to realize how strong you are and that nothing has been able to stop you from achieving your goals but lack of faith in yourself. If you believe in God then how do you think he would view an empowered person who helps others instead of relying on a crutch? Imagine if everyone was filled with confidence and understood they no longer needed an imaginary crutch. Or you could take a couple seconds to pray for some magic because the easy way out didn’t get it’s name by accident or magic.
posted by Beelzebob at
12:44 PM
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