
I remember growing up as a very young kid in south Alabama – a heavily Christian area, specifically Southern Baptist – the thick of the Bible Belt. However, I was raised in a secular, non-religious home, but the extended family was all rigidly and most stereotypically negatively Baptist. So, I grew up hearing a lot of the popular catchphrases like, “Have you found Jesus?” (honestly, even to this day, I didn’t know he was missing), or the infamous, “The only way to heaven is through the church.”
And, more importantly, that’s not what all those Bible stories are really about anyway. They’re about making tough choices and taking a stand on those tough choices. There is one story in particular that I'll use as an example. In it, King Solomon prays to God to consecrate the newly constructed Temple of Jerusalem, the ultimate "House of God," so to speak:
“But will God indeed dwell on the earth? Even heaven cannot contain you, much less this house that I have built. Regard your servant’s prayer: O Lord, heeding the cry that your servant prays to you today; that your eyes may be open night and day toward this house. Hear the plea of your servant and of your people when they pray toward this place.
“Likewise, when a foreigner comes from a distant land because of your name and prays toward this house, then hear them and do according to all that the foreigner calls to you, so that all the peoples of the earth may know your name and fear you, as do your people Israel.”
But the hard choices involving religion (or a selection/commitment to religion) isn’t so much picking the “right” religion or rolling the dice on the right god to worship. It was mostly about taking a stand for what’s right and sticking with it – sweeping away the worldly distractions that turn us from making good decisions:
What will people think of me?
How much money will it cost?
Is this good for my reputation or career?
How much will this hurt or embarrass me?
I’m not going to give you some profound and easy answer to religion or who’s going where in the afterlife, because I don’t have it (and neither does anyone else, no matter what they claim). What I will do is leave you the easiest bit of wisdom I’ve found and let you interpret it as you see fit, not to redefine what you believe, but maybe to redefine what the concept of “God” is:
(1 Corinthians 13:4-6; 1 John 4:7-8)