religion.

Often (or sometimes), I hear people ask, "are you religious?" Just the other day at work, Janessa overheard coworkers discussing the subject. I tend to believe that I am not religious. The whole aspect of "getting religion" or "being religious" reminds me of ritual after ritual, offering incense, traditions.... but I've been discussing religion with Amanda Todd, and decided I would share my current understanding. (Beware: many references to other sources such as dictionaries, and great needed sources like the Bible :)

I think the world's definition of religion is short. We simply ask, "Hey, what religion are you?" Or we fill in the Facebook blank. Religion: Christian. One definition of religion is "a specific fundamental set of beliefs and practices generally agreed upon by a number of persons or sects: the Christian religion; the Buddhist religion (dictionary.com)" This can give us a general understanding. When we hear someone state that their religion is Christianity, we think "Oh, they believe in God and Jesus and ect." However, when someone says they are Buddhist, Muslim, Hindu, or other religions that we are less familiar with, I think we have heard a lot of skewed truths. I believe that people who are unfamiliar with Christians also have a lot of misconceptions.

This is why we should no longer just say, "I'm a Christian." The simplest definitions of "Christian" are "someone who believes in Jesus Christ." In James 2:19, it states "Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also believe, and tremble." It's pretty much saying, "You believe? That's a good start.. but.. even the devils believe." Thats fantastic that we believe, and we desire to claim that we believe. We should say that we are a Christian. But we should also add more about our "religion". What is our definition of Christian? What does it mean to us? What are we going to do with the fact that we believe?

This is where religion comes in.

Dictionary.com's first definition of religion is this: "a set of beliefs concerning the cause, nature, and purpose of the universe, esp. when considered as the creation of a superhuman agency or agencies, usually involving devotional and ritual observances, and often containing a moral code governing the conduct of human affairs." Its not short and sweet!.. more like thorough and rough. But when we say we are a Christian, we are answering most of the questions of religion. We are stating that we believe in a God. We believe that God created. We believe in Christ. We are devoted and observe. We have morals.

But how does that make us different than thousands of other people?

The Bible has few verses using term "religion" (a varying number depending on which version of the Bible you use). James 1:27 describes it most accurately,

"Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world."

According to the world, we are religious. We do take part in actions for something we believe in. We struggle to stay separate from the world. We promote volunteering for orphans. We are encouraged to spend time with widows. Because, James also admonishes the church that, "Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone (James 2:17)." We prove our faith by our works. We show our belief by our religion.

Currently, religion to me is just as it is described in James 2:17. (I would recommend reading the entire book of James) I guess religion ends up being more similiar to the world's (or dictionary.com's) definition than I thought it would be. I guess I just shy away from saying I am religious as the world cannot comprehend that.. and saying that leads to misconceptions.. or so I believe. Just as so many see no difference in being a Christian and being a follower of Jesus Christ.

Ay ay ay... what a crazy world we live in.

So much sin.
So much confusion.
So much desperation.
So much ugliness.
So much beauty.
So much hope.
So much truth.
So much opportunity.
So much.