Ya Gotta Have Faith--Part Deux

Ya Gotta Have Faith—Part Two

These days people seem to use their faith more as a crutch than as a means of guidance. They look for hope in their futures and a way to reconcile their past, but there is still that essence of hypocrisy in many of the organized religions that exist today because their purpose has become to operate more as businesses than as bastions of solitude and reflection.

I’ve got my own God. He’s nameless. He believes in love, taking care of our kids and loving our spouses as if this is our last day to love them. My God doesn’t like us taking what isn’t ours, he doesn’t like us to hate anyone simply because of their color or race (he hates people based on their actions), and he likes us to relish our world and the beauty that surrounds us in it.

He doesn’t believe in taking advantage of those who come to serve him willingly and he doesn’t believe in, after taking advantage of those who have come to serve him willingly, asking parishioners for extra contributions to pay for a defense fund for those in power who have done just that. He doesn’t, as a matter of fact, believe in earmarking a certain amount of money for himself because he doesn’t deal in any secular, legal tender—as Bono said, “The God I believe in isn’t short on cash mister”.
He doesn’t mind me swearing-especially at asshole drivers. He likes rum and diet Pepsi with a lime. He likes that I adore beauty in everything from words to women because he knows that above all else I adore my wife and kids. He expects me to fuck up but he doesn’t like people that act like pricks all week and then go to church for one hour so they can feel as though they’ve repented even though they don’t really mean it. My God doesn’t condone any action that results in the pain, suffering or death of someone else. In essence, my God has one general rule—Don’t be a dick!!

My God wants us to give of ourselves because we want to and not because we feel we have to. He’s a part of me, he’s how I act, he’s how I love and he’s looking at me from the mirror every morning while I get ready for my day saying “Hello you magnificent bastard”. And, at the end of my day, my God likes me to be able to look at myself in the mirror and be able to say that I did the best I could even though I am fallible and prone to mistakes. My God is a helluva guy!!

Of course I could be wrong and one day the one true God could manifest him or her self in my chopped salad from Portillo’s and tell me that I’m going straight to freaking hell! Christ! I wonder how much I could get for that salad on eBay?