Healthy Relationships Support Group
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Anyone have one? Mine's a bit rocky, and I fall off the wagon at times and drink too much, lust and cuss, but it's there. Recharges my batteries to go to church.
Sounds like Spirituality is getting mixed up with Religion here.
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come as you are.and thats how Jesus is.he wants come just as we are. i have been and will always be a sinner. but its by the grace of god that my old ways are gone. i stumble and fall,but he pick me up ,washes me off and forgives me.thats how the relationship is built with him.and eventually you will cry out before you do something that will cause you to stumble. i am an alcoholic.a drug addict,a liar,a cheat ,the list of my sins is great.but the beauty is i was washed clean and forgivin those things,and by his grace i am no longer those things.hope it makes sense. and there is a great hym called " just as i am" it tells it all.
I never been a 'happy-clapper' type of person, though I do have Faith.
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But, yeah, I agree with you wholeheartedly about organized religion. Money and power also enter into it, which leads to corruption, and that ain't Jesus' way. Hope this finds ya well...
A relationship with Jesus? Once upon a time, but we got a divorce about 25 years ago because I got tired of the spiritual abuse. I'm a much happier (atheist) person now, now that I am no longer expected to indulge in all the self-loathing...
...but that's probably because the church I grew up in and my parent's faith emphasized the "our righteousness is as filthy rags" and the damnation we all supposedly deserve a bit overmuch. I left the church because I couldn't hear them say "God loves you" without hearing the subtext "you're going to hell unless you believe God loves you."
NOT an especially healthy relationship - this message that my best could never be good enough, and the only good I could be capable of only possible if GOD does it through me.
I understand that for many believers this is NOT the essence of Christianity - but it was how MINE was shaped through my childhood and young adulthood. I was so burnt out on it that by the time I came out (so even MORE negative bullshit from the same sources) that it wasn't worth it to me to try to find any redeeming qualities in the whole mess.
These days, if I must encounter anything that smacks of my old faith, I prefer John Shelby Spong's outlook. He says for 2,000 years we've been asking the wrong question. Instead of asking "did it happen?" we should be asking "what does it mean?"
I really like that shift, because then all the hideous dogmas that were used to punish me (especially when I told my family/friends I am gay) don't have to be taken as literal truth, but as metaphors which illustrate something about the human condition. In other words, I don't have to insult my intelligence with the preposterous (IMO) assertion that one person defied all the laws of physics by walking on water - instead I can ponder why someone would tell the story and perhaps walk away from it with some notion about a kind of centering (or faith or spiritual experience or experience of God) that keeps one from being overwhelmed by even the stormiest circumstances.
You're human, prone to mistakes. Do the best you can to combat the problems you face and move forward from there. Falling off the wagon doesn't mean you can't run to jump back on... you just have to run a bit to do so. LOL And if going to church helps, go as often as you can. Being with others of a like mind can be quite helpful in regaining the road you want to be on.