An Explainable Religious Faith

I have been traveling recently in Turkey, Greece and Italy. I heard many languages spoken. I saw evidence of religious faith in many places. I want to write a short explanation of my faith that could be understood by someone from a different culture and from another religious faith or perhaps no faith. So here are the main elements of what I believe:

I believe that it is very important to treat all people with the same love and respect that we show to our family and friends. We should treat neighbors and foreigners as we hope they will treat us.

That means forgiving others when they behave badly, loving difficult people, and having compassion for all people who are suffering. It means helping people in whatever way they urgently need to be helped.

It means treating everyone alike, whether they are male or female, young or old, rich or poor, educated or unschooled, of any religion or no religion. All people equally deserve my love and respect, no matter who they are.

Our natural tendency is to treat other people well only after they have demonstrated their good behaviour towards us. We tend to treat people well if they are already nice and friendly.

But that approach isn’t good enough to improve our world. Someone has to take the first initiative to offer goodwill whenever there is suspicion or hatred. To break the global curse of conflict and war, we must be willing to show love towards those who don’t (seem to) deserve it.

We need a higher moral and ethical standard than education, government or logic can produce in us. I believe that higher standard can only come through God’s inspiration.

Most people throughout the centuries have believed in God or in a Higher Power of some form. Regrettably, our human tendency is mostly to reject God’s wisdom. We would rather do everything our own way, even if it is wrong. Our unwillingness to listen God’s suggestions is the main cause of conflict and suffering.

There are many forms of religion in this world, but not all of them work equally well. I spent more than a decade investigating various religions, including Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam and Atheism. I have concluded that Jesus is the best guide to life. I have found no other faith teaching as helpful as his.

Jesus showed us how to find God’s wisdom and to follow it carefully. Unfortunately, many followers of Jesus do not imitate his life style. But whenever we practice his way of listening to God and loving everyone, we find new reason for hope. Jesus created a better world all around him by following God constantly. If we learn to listen intently to God, we will be inspired build a far better world around us.

Through Jesus, we see the face of God. It was for this reason that God sent Jesus to us. Jesus was willing to bet his life on his relationship with his Father God. Jesus died and returned to life to show us the potential for immortal life. That is our deepest longing: to live forever in a better place, on a higher plane.

I believe in miraculous events, but not in humans having magical powers. I see God doing astonishing things in my neighbourhood that you and I could never accomplish without Divine help.

I sense the Spirit of God participating in my daily life. In quiet moments I receive Spirit guidance for my challenges and my projects.

My faith affects everything I do and say. It changes who I am.

Not that I always get things right. I make many mistakes despite my belief in a higher standard. Often I don’t treat others with enough love and respect. But that doesn’t negate my faith.

I am on a long journey of learning: how to live and die, and how to find eternal life. My goal is to help bring a little bit of heaven down to earth. That is the Kingdom of God, the Kingdom of Heaven which Jesus demonstrated for us.