Thursday, March 17, 2011
Selling Your Faith
It's funny sometimes how easy it is for me to make analogies. I do some of my best thinking driving down the road. (I'm sure that should probably be very scary). Anyway, today, I was talking with someone who wasn't really sure what religion she was because her parents were two different religions and her beliefs don't really line up with either one. As we continued to talk, she stated that she believed in re-incarnation in some cases. She stated that she believed that a person could be reincarnated over and over until they get something right. I totally disagree, but. . . I was at a loss for how to show her that God doesn't let you live out a moment over and over and over until you get it right. What does this have to do with analogies, you may ask? Well, I've worked a lot of jobs, and one of the things that I'm doing right now for fun and extra money is selling Avon. Now, if I'm going to sell something successfully, I need to know the product, don't you think? If I don't know how something works or if it works or what it looks like, I cannot assist my customers in determining if that product is right for them or not. Today, when I made that connection, I had to say, "God, forgive me for being unable to sell the product today." Because I have been lax in my studies, I could not pull out a Bible verse or an instance in the Bible that shows that she was wrong. Then it fully connected: my lack of knowledge could make the difference in Heaven or Hell for someone. If you don't use it, you lose it. If I don't keep reading and learning and growing, one day, my stunted spiritual growth could lead to a major failure, a failure in which I am unable to "sell the product," a failure that leads a person whom God lovingly created to reject the "product" and spend eternity in Hell. I am grateful that today was not that day.
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Disclaimer: Please don't think that this is all about proving that she is wrong. It is not. Here was a girl who was struggling to know the Truth, and I was unable to help her. :'(
your truth may not be her truth and she'll need to study for herself to figure out what she really believes and values. She will need to form her own relationship w/ whatever type of higher power she believes in and have her own faith rather than just piggybacking on someone else's faith. If there is a God or anything, I don't think there's any knowledge that he wouldn't let a person keep trying again to get something right. I don't really believe in reincarnation or past lives (or a lot of things), but I think your perspective on it is vastly different than hers. You seem to have conceived it as a punitive, hellish thing and she saw it as 2nd, 3rd, 4th, etc. chances from a very patient spiritual entity, I think.
I didn't necessarily think of it as a punitive thing at all. I simply think that it's an unfair thing. Like. . . if I keep giving a test over and over and over and over and over until my students get it right. What kind of success is that?
Yes, your beliefs absolutely totally HAVE to be your own, but a little guidance from time to time never hurt. That's what church services are all about. :)
Perhaps the funniest thing about this post is that very shortly thereafter, at a meeting for Life Church, they actually were talking about the different traits of the pastor, the evangelist, etc., and they mentioned how the evangelist is a great salesman! I've never heard anyone else use quite that description. :) It felt kind of odd using that analogy when I had never heard anyone else use it. :)
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