Yes, I am a Christian. I am not perfect; I am me. I struggle with my faith, as we've all heard the southern Baptists preach to stony crowds coming to be saved. To tell you the truth, I hate religion. In the eyes of a cynic, it's nothing more than a scream for help into the empty void of our dark universe. It provides comfort for those who need reassurance. "If there was a God then why do bad things happen?"

I hear that frequently. And I don't care.

Actually, I lie. I do care. I care a lot. And that's why religion aggravates me. It seems as though our society can be thick sculled and hard headed when it comes to faith. But faith is not fact, and you can't expect it to be.
That's why I'm in love with my God. That's why I try to be a Christ follower, not a hypocrite. (Although I realize I am; it's impossible not to be. Perfection is not a possibility, and I cannot expect it to be, as I have for so long.)

I don't believe the Bible is a rule book. You see, religion mistakes it to be- a roadmap of “do’s” and “don’ts”. Churches get so caught up in judging others that they forget to judge themselves. Who are we to judge? No single person is better than another. We are all merely different, mystiquely unique. If God loves us, like the Bible says, then I do not believe he gave us this book to bash it on the heads of others. He gave us this gift to appreciate it.

You see, to me the books of the Bible are like poems in a collection- or a song in a hymn book. They're separate voices from different worlds, oozing with stories and accounts of observations, experiences, storytelling, and lives. The Bible is a book to appreciate- and to inspire.
That's what I love about religion. Not so much the bumper sticker version of religion, but the actually dictionary definition. I crave finding inspiration in the littlest of places, creating meaning in this complexity of chaos and calling it life. We learn from experiences and feed off of others. We must use the sources we are given.
And, if you pay special attention, if you choose to sit patiently through the entire play-you'll see how each perspective overlaps, how one scene leads to another-how characters, so unimportantly trivial-rise to become great leaders, best friends. You'll sit through and see how the words, so thoughtfully crafted by our Great Writer, so carefully memorized by our willing and desperate actors, make a story on stage, as scenes knit together to create acts, and the acts, a play.
And this play inspires another one-another story.

That's the beauty of life-of faith-of humanity. We are all empty souls searching for light in the darkness, an escape from the unknown. But can't you see? It's inevitable. We cannot fear it. Life is a funny thing because we won't figure it out until it's over. So we must take advantage of every opportunity, and use our sources.
If we sign up for Christianity, we give ourselves opportunities to provoke thought-to question the world while receiving a comforting hand, saying that it's okay to step forward, unsure and alone.

The littlest of No Ones become the greatest of Someones in the eyes of The Lord. Heroes arise from dust.

Life is beautiful. God may exist or He may not, but considering it all as a whole, I see it as impossible to mistake His Presence for nothing. So much overlaps in life-giving our world true meaning. The way that friends from years ago come back to surprise you in a time of need-it just seems to me that God does exist. In bad situations, lessons arise, and we start mustering questions and answers: "if it wasn't for this or that" as well as "because's" occur. In our infinitesimal infinities, I find it hard to believe that there's no Writer to such a glorious play. Like all good works, He may not receive the credit he deserves, but that doesn't mean he's absent. In fact, God is usually most obviously present when he seems most apparently absent. The secret to finding Him is looking.
After all, the powerful play will go on, according to Walt Whitman. Regardless. And we have the ability to contribute a verse.