my religion

I’ve been taking a class this quarter called American Denominations. I’ve always been quite fascinated by other beliefs, so as hard as this class is, I absolutely love it. One thing I’ve begun to realize while taking this class is that I have taken beliefs from other religions and incorporated it into my own, while still retaining my own religion. Over the weekend, I had a conversation with Tim and Jon about the difference between our community and our beliefs, and as complicated as it is for me to understand, it makes so much sense. Adventism is my community – I grew up Adventist, I go to church on Saturday, I am vegetarian, I have all these understandings that make me apart of this community. And then, there are my absolute beliefs, which most likely are different from everyone else’s. There are the Adventist beliefs that I strongly hold onto – Sabbath, 2nd Coming, Jesus Christ, etc. But, I realized I am very Pentecostal in some ways. I have a very spiritualist view of life, and find spiritualism to be a very powerful thing. I also find the Native American belief that God is in everything to be quite beautiful… although, this is a little more confusing, but I do see the divine in everything, I just don’t worship the thing itself. I love meditation, and sometimes find myself having Hindu beliefs as well. I am at that stage in my life where I am trying to find what fits for me, and right now, I find so much beauty in all religions. I want to intake everything. I believe you can take so many things from different religions and incorporate it into your life to be closer to God. I don’t think that there is one true correct way to worship God. I enjoy many forms of worship. If it brings me closer to my God, how in the world could it be wrong?? It’s not. That’s what is so beautiful about God.

life is an adventure

Today has been a good day. All too often I’ve been feeling drained, rushed, stressed… so today was definitely needed. I think I am too worrisome and stressed out a majority of the time. It doesn’t help that my parents badger me about a lot of things, but I know they are only looking out for me. I wish I just had all the answers in front of me on what to do and how to do it…. but its probably a good thing that I don’t. It makes life more of an adventure. I’m not saying I’ve come up with any answers. In fact, I haven’t come up with any at all. But I may have come to the conclusion that I’m going to stop myself from worrying about everything and just enjoy things as they come. I’ll deal with everything else when I need to. And why worry, really? I have amazing friends, supporting family, a wonderful boyfriend, will soon be done with school and be able to do whatever I want…. I should be happy with that, shouldn’t I?

And as for today, its not like anything special happened. I slept in, watched grey’s anatomy, did laundry, and worked on a paper. I hung out with Cammie and watched one of my most favorite movies, Amelie. Plus, I’m performing tonight and I know we’ll totally rock it again.

I just need to learn to stop worrying. Everything will be okay… won’t it?