How is your God today?

Earlier this evening in #smalltalk Michael asked me a fairly innocuous question: <michaell> how's your god today Mark? :) It was an odd question, especially for one to come out of the blue, a few years ago I had a friend who would occasionally ask me "how's your life in christ today?" which I've mentioned in the past, but that was from a fellow christian and somewhat vaguely expected ( at least, from Karl it was ). Tonight's question was somewhat more intriguing as yesterday was the first time in three months that I'd been to church on Sunday night, the conversation was followed up with another question: <michaell> just curious is all <michaell> does it help to have a god to 'fall back on'? At this I paused, I knew what my answer was, but somehow - I was hesitant about saying it, or even - how to say it. I wasn't exactly in the mood for a deep theological argument, but neither did I want to pass it off without a decent answer. So what was my response? Does it help to have a god, or God to fall back on? Well - that all depends on whether you treat God as merely a crutch on which you "fall back on when the shit hits the fan", or whether you treat God as a integral part, and focal point of ones life, as a constant source of love, guidance, and empowerment. That's not to say I've led a perfect life of happyness without issues; quite the contrary. I'm somewhat disgusted with myself knowing some of the things I've done, or continue to do at times, knowing that it's not how I want to live my life, but when the shit does hit the fan - I have a belief, and faith that theres a supernatural being, and world out there working around me - and in general it works to my favour - it just needs someone to reach out and ask for it. So does it help to have God? I would definitely say so, any kinda of support network does: be it God, the people of his church, alcoholics anonymous, or weight watchers. The knowledge theres people or a higher being to turn to when you're in need, is alot better than fretting, worrying, and having no where, and no one to turn to. But what about the other side of the equation? Does it hurt to NOT have God? To be honest I'm not sure I can really answer that, I've never really known a life without some level of "God" in it, but what I do find easier to answer is "does it hurt to not have God's presence", but that's for another post...

links: digg this    del.icio.us    technorati    reddit