A Theological Epiphany

I've had a realization lately. Let me see if I can put this into words...

Whatever life experiences you have deepens or lessens your faith, regardless of what faith you walk.

For example:
I'm going to make up someone, we'll call her Tara. Let's say Tara is a Christian and always has been. She's played the lottery since she was old enough to buy a ticket and one day, she gets the winning ticket. She wins a million dollars. This makes her thank Jesus and have even more faith that he is working in her life because Tara's family is on the brink of foreclosure and can barely keep enough food on the table regardless of the fact that she works hard everyday. Jesus is, therefore, protecting her.

But!!

Let's say this same situation happens to someone else. Actually no lets just use Tara again but instead of Christianity lets say she walks the Hindu path. That she worships the Gods and Goddesses typically found in India and places like that. Lets say Tara is still the same hardworker with foreclosure looming overhead. She still plays the lottery every week and she still wins. This time instead of thanking Jesus, she's going to thank Laksmi (the Hindu Goddess of fortune) for blessing her with good fortune and perhaps thank Ganesh (Hindu God of protection-think I got that right) for protecting her.

Now lets say...

Tara was raised in a Hindu household. She was taught the worship of the Gods and Goddesses and that's what she's known all her life. (Or we can have this go the other way, Tara was raised Christian but recently stumbled upon the Hindu path and began worshipping their Gods and Goddesses on her own). Lets say she still won the lottery, all the same circumstances applied. Foreclosure in her near future, not enough food, but still a hardworker regardless. Lets say she had just been told about or discovered her new faith a few weeks ago and started practicing it deciding that it made more sense than her old one. Then she wins the lottery. This gives her the feeling that she made the right decision, that her new deity is rewarding her, blessing her, smiling on her. She's been blessed with good fortune, things that she needs are coming to her. Someone is watching out for her, and this gets attributed to her new faith.

The circumstances were the same, the same thing happened, they both had good outcome. But in one setting Tara's Christian faith was deepened where in the other one her Hindu faith was deepened. And yes it my belief that reglardless of what religion she was practicing she would've won the lottery. I don't believe that you have to pray to Jesus to recieve the things you need. Nor I do I think you need to pray to Laksmi (since she was the example used earlier) to recieve monetary blessings. Or to Ganesh to recieve protection. I think if you work for what you need (money or what have you) then you're going to get it on your own without a deity helping.

Everybody practices their faith slightly differently from the next person (even if they're both practicing the same religion) and every 'bump in the road' is going to affect people differently. I look at times of hardship (and the universe knows I've seen enough of those) as learning experiences. There's a lesson to be learned in losing something or having a fight with someone. Until that lesson is learned 'teachers' will be placed in front of you until you've been taught your lesson and really learned it. I've experienced this in my life. I've been through things that have confirmed my belief in this.

Christians would say this is Jesus trying to teach you a lesson. I say it's the universe. I say it's a karmic backlash. I wasn't doing something I was supposed to be doing and I suffered the consequences of it. No evil force caused me to go through what I went through, it was my own doing. And if I look back at the events of my life I can prove that using statistical means, scientific means. The devil didn't make these things happen, my actions-or lack there of-made them happen.

Some of my Christian family may read this and think I've 'backslidden' as was once used to describe me. Truth is, I've been pretty firm in my belief system for a long time. I haven't backslidden from it once even when people think that I have. I have a bit (understatement) of a scientific mind. I don't have to 'see to believe' but I do like it when there is evidence to support my theories. I've had evidence galore in my life to support my beliefs and the more of my life I experience and live the more evidence I gather that I am walking the path that I was meant to walk. I believe that the path I am walking is the right one, for me. And maybe my path isn't for everyone, that's something I believe. Just like spicey food isn't for everyone, certain paths or walks of life aren't for everyone. And I can accept that.