Religious Views? Hmmmm.....

I spent some time updating my Facebook page recently, and one of the categories you can post about yourself is "Religious Views." Generally people simply state "Jewish" or "Christian" or whatever church denomination with which they are affiliated. But when I arrived at this field, I was stumped. Genuinely stumped.

Most of my readers know that my faith "heritage" has been in the Church of Christ, a (mostly) non-denominational Christian church that evolved from the American Restoration Movement about 200 years ago. I'm far from a religious historian, but one of the cool things about the Church of Christ is that its roots are from all directions: Methodist, Baptist, Presbyterian and I think even Episcopalian somehow if I recall correctly. So, basically, this movement came about due to a sincere effort of a large number of people who were really searching for spiritual truths without the yokes of organized religions and their traditions. Sounds good to me.

My whole life I've always (at minimum) had my foot in the door of the CofC, if for no other reason because much of my extended family remains a part of that church family. But for the last 10 years the vast majority of my church-going has been to other churches: Bible churches, Presbyterian churches, community churches and Episcopal churches mostly. The last couple of years in Maryland we went to the Episcopal church nearby. They were a warm group, but we never got involved at all and only attended 1-2 times a month. Since our arrival in CA almost a year ago, we kinda went back to our roots and attended the church that Elisa grew up in - the University Church of Christ that meets on the Pepperdine campus. It's very comfortable and easy to do that; it's familiar and we know a bunch of people there, not the least of which are Elisa's parents. And we often enjoy Ken Durham's preaching, as well. But the reality is that neither of us are really into the Church of Christ tradition still. I certainly do respect it, however - there is a lot to like about it, including the reliance solely on scripture (and not on formal traditions or creeds) as well as the autonomous nature of each congregation (at least in theory). And the old-time hymns sung a cappella in four part harmony is like a warm blanket for both of us. Lately, though, we have attended an Episcopal church in Beverly Hills which we are enjoying. It also has a terrific kids program. We'll see how things progress.

Anyway, so there I was: What do I enter for "Religious Views?" I still consider myself a Christian in a very generic sense, so I could have typed that in, but I felt that would be kinda boring. I certainly didn't want to type in a specific denomination - that's WAAAY too limiting for me.

So I thought: What exactly ARE my religious views, anyway? (For the sake of this discussion, let's change "religious" to "spiritual" - that's a much more meaningful term to me.) Certainly my spirituality and beliefs have evolved a great deal over the years, and especially my adult years. But honestly it has been years since I have actually paused to really consider this question seriously and thoughtfully. When certain specific issues come up in conversation, I can fairly readily tell you what I think and believe about them, but it's a daunting task for me to explain my overall spiritual viewpoints.

If you know me well, you know I've got a pretty good head on my shoulders, yet I'm not the sharpest tool in the shed. I recognized this fact early in life, and made adjustments along the way so I can get by effectively. One way I have done this is to break down the "tough stuff" in life (spirituality, relationships, academics, career, politics) into the most basic parts, and then attempt to excel in understanding and applying them. In school I would learn the overall outline of the topic at hand, and then (if I actually felt like doing any studying) fill in the details as I could. I have tried to be a keen observer of people and that has helped me in relationships. And after many years of going to church and holding my faith as my ultimate priority, I found it could get overwhelming to try to learn and apply the countless biblical teachings, and I would encounter frustration in feeling good about my faith. So once again, over the years I have tried to boil my spiritual beliefs down to the basics, so here it goes:

> God created the heavens and the Earth.
> Emulating Jesus, particularly his loving and compassionate side, is the best model I know.
> No one is perfect, so it is wonderful to know about God's amazing grace.

I think that's it. The other stuff is either just too big for my brain (the existence of heaven and/or hell, the meaning of the cross, the consequences of sin) or too insignificant to worry about (instruments, women's roles, choice of church to attend, etc).

I'm guessing that some of my readers will be somewhat alarmed by this entry, and that's OK. I'm happy to reveal some intimate glimpses of me from time to time. In the end I trust that God knows my heart, and I think (hope!) He's pleased with me more often than He's disappointed.

So, in the category of "Religious Views" on my Facebook profile, I typed in a simple, "God is good." That pretty much sums it up for me, and it's wonderful to have that peace.