Religious Rantings

If you've happened to read my dad's blog, you'd know that it's half dedicated to me and half dedicated to preaching. If you're expecting that again you'll probably be a bit disappointed to know that won't be the case here. I'm not much of a preacher and honestly haven't quite developed my families complete submission to the gospel. However, I do have at least one blogs worth of um, holy? words. 

Today I was walking to class, and just like every Wednesday our campus preacher was there reading from the bible and preaching about God's love. I always think of him as a really good guy, very wholesome, and it's been nice to see that he's gathered a little crowd this year. However, this time he actually had a couple helpers passing out some tiny new testaments. I thought that was really cute but of course most people just walked by and didn't take one. Then I thought about how I don't really need a bible right? I already have a full sized one of course, and I already believe in God, obviously they're meant to be passed out to people who don't own one. But then, the people who don't, wouldn't be the ones to take them. So, I decided to grab one, y'know, to be nice, make them feel like they're making a difference. But why did I need to do that? I mean, did I choose to believe that they were making a futile effort? My grabbing one made them feel better about the amount of people who didn't? My dad brought up that they probably didn't need any reassurance about their efforts because they're not doing it to feel good about themselves, but still, if I put myself into their shoes and hundreds of students walked by, I'd be a little disheartened! So I walked by, took one when offered, smiled and agreed to have a good day. 

I suppose that means I'm still a bit behind on the holiness, but that's alright, I'm not a preacher, or even a public speaker for a reason. Also, I don't have a moral to that story, just some thoughtful commentary. I also think that it's sad that it almost feels like I've grown out of some of the beliefs or morals that I once had. When I was younger, even just sophomore year of highschool, I straight up never cursed, I honestly couldn't bring myself to do it. Maybe it wasn't even morals, just the fact that I wasn't used to it. I bring this up because one of my really close friends at the time brought up that it was obvious that I'm religious. I asked why and he said it was because I never cussed. I mean, he was right, but I didn't think that the two go hand in hand. It makes me a little sad now that I'm not "obviously religious" anymore. Part of that is because I try my absolute hardest to blend into society, and being religious isn't exactly the most popular thing to be right now. It's viewed more like an evil thing than a good thing, which is really really sad. Crazy how believing in a God that loves everyone is viewed as more "evil" than being a "satanist" right now. Its in quotes because they aren't real satanists. Someone just decided that an accepting group of the current social norms would fit that label. Which... is odd. I really doubt that the devil himself would be loving and accepting of others. Even if they're doing outlandish crazy stuff, God is the one who's more likely to love them!

Anyways, got off track. I guess I've been adapted to society because there are some curse words that are probably part of my daily vocabulary. I'm not even proud to say that, it's just how it is! Then again, most of them have lost all meaning, which brings me to the idea that... if the word has lost all meaning, is it even bad anymore? For example, in the bible the word jackass is mentioned multiple times just in reference to a donkey. More recently, it's been used as a bad word because, well, ass of course. But ass still means donkey, and it still means rear end, we just gave it a new meaning. The concept of words is very strange, and the fear of a word is sometimes confusing to me. I once watched a Youtuber who often said outlandish things because he claimed that it would cause desensitization. The more you say it, the less power it has. Honestly, psychologically that makes a lot of sense to me, but I still wouldn't go around spouting slurs, especially in this day and age. It just makes me thing about how "f you!" is a friendly greeting, and "b*tch" is a term to yell at my close friends. Honestly, if someone called me any of those words online, their would be barely any weight to it. Now, people have to come up with true, hard hitting insults to actually cause any damage. Someone could come on my page saying "F YOU!!!, you're stupid!! Idiot!!" and I would probably think it was a friend making a joke. Now, someone could come on my page saying, "wow, what pathetic writing, I noticed that you seem extremely insecure and weak-minded, I would suggest staying off the internet until it's time to act like an adult" and boom I would be absolutely devastated! So, the weight of the words have been discounted with use, and I wonder about how language will continue to change over time, and if it makes me any less Christian for fitting into the language of society today. 

Thanks for coming to my TED talk on sidewalk preachers and the power of words, until next time, thanks for reading my endless ramblings.