Of Religion and things

Job 33:16- says:
For God speaks once, yea twice, yet man perceives it not.In a dream, in a vision of the night, when deep sleep falls upon men, in slumberings upon the bed; Then he opens the ears of men, and seals their instruction, That he may turn man from his purpose, and hide pride from man. He keeps back his soul from the pit, and his life from perishing by the sword.

Once or more, I have often wondered why religion exists. The teachers (parents, priests, Sheikhs etc) have time and again told about the importance of religion and why one needs to cultivate and maintain a working relationship with God (whomever they perceive Him to be). Now, I am not saying I do not believe in the existence of powers supernatural- I do.

But the one question that still fails to get answered satisfactorily is why we have to all belong to different religious sects and yet still claim there is one GOD. That beats my understanding and has me running around almost Godlessly.

The other day I was in a bus- patiently waiting for it to fill up so that we could get moving. (I had a brood of young-lings waiting on me for their evening meal and so much more). Within the same parking lot where our bus was parked was a crowd gathered to sneer at the Christian faith visa-vie believers. From the sound and looks of it, it had been organised by a different religious sect. One that despises the very presence of Christians. I will call them Religion Z.

The "Z-ians" had knowledge of the Bible and were intent on desecrating it without fear. The Christians, whenever they were given a chance to respond to an accusation or so often found themselves on the defensive. In short, the Z-ians were bullies. And I asked myself how on earth they'd hope to get converts if they came out as bullies. No body (at least I don't) loves bullies.

They are un-reliable and un-very many things.

By the time our bus set off, I was angry. Angry at life. Angry at the divisions humans have created among themselves because of something as fickle as religion. Angry that in as much as each of these religions preach love, none practice the love they preach. Angry that regardless of all, I still feel compassion for all humankind regardless of their walk in life. Angry that I was angry.

In my formative years, I never identified myself with a particular church but I attended fellowship whenever I found a gathering. Until that one day I attended a gathering and they were trash talking another sect. That was it. It's been over five years of no church gathering for me.

I digress but going back to the verse that I found sitting in my mail box- dreams. Some sources claim dreams are simply an extension of our waking lives. That they are suppressed thoughts that the mind seems to bring upfront when the body relaxes. However, if that were true, why then do some dreams come to pass?

For instance, on the bus this morning I briefly closed my eyes and I had a dream. In it, I was involved in an accident. When I opened my eyes, I mumbled a few prayerful chants and pushed it to the back of my mind. However, when I got to the bus stop and had to cross the road- a truck that seemed very familiar and one whose plates I had seen before run over a cyclist- Right in front of my eyes! That was the weirdest thing to happen to me since the disappearance of my bank balance last night! It's not until I'd gotten to my place of work that I remembered seeing that truck in my bus time dream!

And it's things like these that confuse me even more about the workings of that other intangible world. A world religion speculates about but can never give concrete facts about. A world we are only supposed to be in after we shed our physical selves. A world I unfortunately often visit without my physical consent. All I need for my time here is lots of laughter and happy times with my children. Not these visions that leave me confused.

Let's Pray:

Our Father, who art in heaven;

Hallowed by thy Name.

Thy Kingdom come.

Thy will be done on Earth,

as it is in heaven.

Give us this day, our daily bread.

And forgive us our trespasses, 

as we forgive those who trespass against us

Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil,

For thine is the Kingdom

And the Power, and the Glory

Forever and Ever

Amen