Losing the Stiffness

Recently I have started thinking about religion. Honestly, religion is a word that I dislike. It doesn't mean anything personal to me - it just means that you believe what is most likely rules that man created.

I do believe that faith should be personal. It should be something that you believe with your whole heart, yet probably not be able to completely grasp.

For years I followed "rules" and tried to be someone that as of now I look back and wonder what the hell was I thinking! My view of things was that I was better than others because of what I believed and the way I was living my life. Little did I know that I was sheltering myself as well as pushing away those who might have been interested in learning more about Jesus from a non-judgmental and open to the fact that they might not believe the same as me.

What I find so funny is that it is always thought that when you get older that you get more set in your ways. For me I have found that I have let go of those ways and can see what it all looked like from the outside. It was all just silly to follow all the "rules" that churches, organizations or so called leaders told me I had to do in order to really live the Christian life. Most of that junk can not be found anywhere in the Bible...ok, maybe with some personal interpretation from those presenting this "way of life."

I still have my core beliefs. But I no longer think that I am above anyone in any way at all. We are all on the same playing field. We were all shown a "gift" that we can chose to accept or not. Forcing that gift on someone does not make them really want it...it will probably send them running in the other direction.