Yes yes yes…watching Hero with a thousand faces and the Power of Myth way back when in college was a huge paradigm shift for me. I still have Power of Myth on my audible so I can check in with the message every now and again 
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I started church about a year ago…was in a low point in life drinking worse then ever… I put a vague but pretty to the point goodbye everybody message on fb… I didn’t want my friends to know I went without them knowing that I was sorry 4 what I was gonna do… put a bottle off pills to my mouth and started to tilt it up and my fb messenger went off… was a guy I used to live around the corner from wanting to know if I was ok and if I needed anything… we hadn’t talked in 15 years…we sent a few messages and then he called… he asked me to meet him the next morning at church to go to a Sunday service… I have never really been but went…I meet him and his wife… I drank alot in the parking lot the next morning then got out of my truck and went Into the school that it was being held at… the feeling I got was amazing that morning… nothing but love and great people to be with… I kept going every sunday till in March the closed from covid… a week later another friend invited me to a church they went to and I havent missed a Sunday since…this church didn’t and will never close from anything… we don’t wear masks nor social distance… nobody has gotten sick or have had issues from this so called pandemic… to be honest I really am not sure what I believe just yet but as time goes by I am learning alot and progressing in my walk with GOD… meet many new friends… I am 9 and half sober and have been back with my wife for 7 and a half months…the friend that messaged me that night saved me…he is like a brother and best friend now… then church and people I go with now have kept me straight… nothing stops me from those 2 hours every sunday morning… I hope to keep growing and keep my life straight…
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I don’t know what to call what I believe in. When I was younger I read a lot about different religions after being an atheist for about five minutes. God, the Tao, the Universe, I dunno.
That fluid thing that is everything. It’s always there out of the corner of your eye, and when you look straight at it, it disappears.
Personally I call it Lue. Life, the Universe and Everything. All of creation and lack of creation, what I may know and (much more) never know.
Life is better when I go with it, and falls apart when I’m deaf to it. And nothing made me as hard of hearing as the drink.
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LOVED this! Highly recommend.
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Cool topic.
Habakkuk 1:2-4
How long, Lord, must I call for help, but you do not listen? Or cry out to you, “Violence!” but you do not save? Why do you make me look at injustice? Why do you tolerate wrongdoing? Destruction and violence are before me; there is strife, and conflict abounds. Therefore the law is paralyzed, and justice never prevails. The wicked hem in the righteous, so that justice is perverted.
I consider myself a recovering Catholic. And right now I’m struggling with God and the suffering that goes on in life.
I’m not crazy about religion. But I consider myself a Christian. I believe in the Triune God. Father Son and Holy Spirit. I’m not to happy with the Christian faith right now. Or the word Religion. Religion was created by people, and people are all sinners just struggling to get by. I think a lot of people forget what Jesus really preached about and have become really extreme. The mighty dollar I reckon.
I came to faith again before bi lateral hip replacements in my 40s because I was very scared to have surgery. Then my children became addicted to some heavy drugs. One even had a dual diagnosis and I had no one to turn to so I put it in Gods hands. Addiction is too powerful for me. I had some great pastors in the Lutheran church who preached from the Bible; but, more importantly, from their hearts. God has answered many of my prayers. Especially when it comes to my children in recovery. I’ve been blessed to have done some mission trips in Antigua Guatemala and really see God at work. My favorite part was when we would hit the streets with no plan at all and let God guide us to people that might need our help. It should have been real scary, and it kind of was, but I felt this protection from God that he was there leading me. I’ll never forget the people I helped and I felt like me helping them did more for me. My friends would ask me what did you do there? What did you build? What medical stuff did you bring. We just brought Gods love. We loved on people that needed and wanted loving. It was an amazing adventure.
I’m not sure what happens after I die. But when I do meet God I got some questions for him. And I have some doubts about some things. And I believe that is ok.
As Jesus said; “Just believe”
And the boys father said “I do believe. Help me with my unbelief.”
I really want to know why Jesus is portrayed by the Christian church as a tall white guy with blond hair? 
I do accept other people’s beliefs. I don’t study or look into other people’s beliefs because I am real comfortable with my God. Even though I’m struggling. I would like to read The Quran sometime though. But I wouldn’t know how to find one that would be, say, the equivalent to an NIV Bible. Maybe you have an answer for that?
Thank you for the topic. It will be interesting to read. Good luck on your Religion BA.
God Bless,
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Love the topic
I’m from Aotearoa which all know as New Zealand.
My ethnicity is Maori. We are an indigenous people in the south Pacific who were colonized by the British.
Our beliefs and ideologies were pushed out and missionaries brought new teachings. If we practiced any of our own teaching… it was not without punishment due to laws that had been created at the time. As a result, most of my generation have lost the ability to speak our own language.
I guess I just wanted to share this as seeing the name God in the rooms of NA was a deterrent. Based on my peoples history… I didn’t have anything nice to say surrounding this topic. Since coming into NA… I tapped into the spiritual aspect of the programme. Having had a spiritual awakening as a result of these steps…
Being Maori we have many Gods… very similar to Greek mythology. Reconnecting with my culture has helped to understand where I have come from… without this, I would not know where I am going. One thing I know for sure, is that I would not have come to know this or find this out about myself… if I was not clean and sober.
Dont get me wrong… today I do not hate religion of any kind or those who have one. I love that the 12 step programme was created to welcome all beliefs systems. My Atua (God in Maori) knows me through and through and works through my conscience, through people and through blessings. I like this saying
“We are spiritual beings having a human experience”
I never acknowledged the spiritual aspect of the programme through the first 7yrs of the the 8yrs being in recovery. The result was that I kept relapsing… as I never fully gave my will over. The past year has been amazing and even through my struggles… I have seen my Atua work miracles. Thanks for the topic.
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“We are spiritual beings having a human experience”
I like this 
I like this a lot. I never thought of it that way. I mean it’s seems so obvious.
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I’m glad you like it. It is my fathers favorite sayings… Hes 26yrs clean and sober. Bit of a guru today… 26yrs ago he was not 
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Religion is the worlds greatest money making scheme. How rich is the Catholic Church?
Just Google yourselves. Its amazing to think how an organisation preaches about goodness,wellness, helping others,helping the poor. Yet rakes in all this money. Billions of dollars in just the USA alone. But these people god do not end poverty. Forget the world but in their own country. Its the worlds biggest scam.
If you want to find peace. Find it within yourself.
If this offends anyone I apologise.
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So true. When people need or want something, they pray to God. If its fulfilled they will believe that God did that. If its not fulfilled they believe it is God’s will.
Something not quite right with that setup in my opinion
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Praise God! It sounds to me like He wrapped himself in flesh and came to you in the form of your long lost friend, to remind you that you aren’t forgotten.
Thanks for sharing!
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I love “Lue”! How creative!
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Thank you for sharing! I know plenty of “recovering Catholics”… and the arguments are all valid for the reasons for leaving the institutional church.
Continue falling in love with God, and do not worry about the rest.
God bless you.
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Thank you for sharing! I would love to know more about the Moari culture. I did a little research for a paper about the Fa’afafine.
You make a valid point. Thanks for sharing. Your opinion matters, so no worries about offending!
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I believe this as well. 
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Thanks for sharing! God, by a monotheistic theological definition, is ineffable. Therefore, we cannot contain God in words or ideas.
I believe, unfortunately, that Christianity is the biggest distributor of atheism. Pity, really.
Continue to walk with your higher power. May he/she/it/they be a beacon to your soul.
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Perfectly said @liv_m!
The atheists that I met and communed with have been very candid in what they reject. They many times are astounded that I reject that form of religiosity, spirituality, dogma, and even God, too. We are all one body; I have found atheists are our consciences. Do what is right for the simple fact that it is right, not because you will have a heavenly reward afterwards.
What I find sad is that misguided, Pharasaic Christian’s drive people away from experiencing God; whether it be the Triune God, Gods and Goddesses, or humanity’s higher self. I confess I was once that zealot who alienated many people for my misplaced love of God.
We are all on this journey together, but not all on the same road. And that is okay. It took me a while to figure that out.
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I am a Christian believer. I know God and Satan exist, for I have seen the works of both. Some things must be seen to be believed, and some things must be believed to to be seen.
And to quote Forest Gump: “that’s all I have to say about that.”
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