Dear God,
                 Mass today was a bit diconcerting. The priest talked about all the things of Jesus being a present to humanity, and I loved it and believed in it. Then there was the part about Mary, and how she was Your perfect handmaid. I love Christmas; I really do, but I feel like the Catholic church seems to consider Christmas an ode to her rather than an ode to You for sending us Your Son.
        I may be wrong, and that may is leaning towards definitely. I've done this before -I've insulted Mary when she is a saint, and she is a good person, and she hasn't done anything to me- and I don't want to do it again. I love Mary; she is the only strong woman character (besides the other Mary..Mary Magdelene) in the whole Bible, but sometimes I think that she is overestimated to a point where it is blasphemous...it's okay to honor Mary, but I just don't think she's as special as You, or Jesus, or the Spirit. Is this an awkward topic?
         I want to be able to talk freely about such things, but I'm just scared that I'll commit blasphemy (though I enjoy saying that word). I'm scared that I'll ruin things; I mean Mary isn't the kind of person one should be rude about...but that begs the question of is there a kind of person about whom one can be rude? Is Mother Mary in some sort of higher status than us regular humans and saints or is she just an ordinary humble girl who got assigned a huge task and who stayed humble?
         Who is Mother Mary and why is she so significant (beyond the obvious)?

Cheers.

Dear God,
                 Here I am, sitting up at 1 in the morning, pretending to be righteous in writing a religious-ish post after a long day of absolutely no Christmas reflection or even a slightly deep thought relating to anything Christian. I am just disillusioned after not winning a scholarship (which I didn't even pray for), and just being an absolute failure.
                Does Christmas mean anything to me at all? I'm tired of my own facade, and trying-too-hard (and ending up not trying at all) to find meaning in my disappointingly shallow thoughts. I thought that if I did this 7-days-of-advent thing, I'd be able to be a pure, righteous girl - a perfect Catholic who'd deserve to have her prayers answers. I thought that finding meaning in a tradition that I only barely acknowledge, but is clearly important, would help me be a better person. Maybe I'm just not going to be a better person, at least in regards to Christmas anyway.
                Maybe Christmas means nothing to me but the fact that it is the birth of Jesus who is an amazing, passionate, and vibrant role model. Maybe it doesn't bring love, peace, and joy to my life. Maybe it's just another birthday for me.
               I'd love to celebrate Jesus' birthday, but I want to do it on my terms. I don't think cakes, and presents, and the "holiday spirit" (which is just a forced feeling of nice-ness) is my way of honoring someone. I think I'd just acknowledge Jesus' birthday by wishing him quietly under my breath and being thankful that he came down to Earth and graced us with his presence and died for us.
              I love Christmas for its literal meaning, and I'm afraid it just doesn't hold much sublimal sentiment for me.

Cheers.

Dear God,
                It is already Day 2 of my Christmas Reflections Week, and I've just had the brilliant idea of listening to pop culture Christmas songs and reading Christmas stories to understand the season better.
         So far, I've listening to one song which cannot be considered particularly Christmas-y aside from its one phrase "looks like christmas came early for me" (cue some amazing bass), but have remembered others: the likes of 'All I Want For Christmas Is You'.
      Christmas, at least according to pop culture, is about wishes being granted - a time of presents and gifts. A time when the limitations of happiness are almost obsolete as everyone is out to make others' lives a better place. Santa Claus climbs through chimneys, mistletoe hangs conviniently over nodding heads that have been dancing around each other for a while, holiday music sparks impromptu dance parties in tired relationships, and the lights wink conspiratorially, lifting spirits with their mischeif.
         Neither Santa Claus nor mistletoe was an original part of the celebration of Christmas; it was something added on through years of human culture. But even these fake, but beautiful celebratory devices have their roots: they seem to have emmerged from the very air of enchantment, wish-granting and present-giving which was first seen on that cold winter's day in Bethlehem when You gave the world its best present yet: Your own Son to guide us and show us the truth.

Cheers.

Dear God,
                Christmas is fast approaching, and I must say that my efforts for a Christmas spirit are being sidetracked into general loudness, and unwanted enthusiasm. My lively renditions of 'Joy to the World' led to a more sombre (but ultimately more interesting) spell of  'Hashivenu," which I found out is a song of mourning.
           On that note, my reflections of Christmas haven't been very enlightening. I'm going to say now that I know that Christmas is about new beginnings. It is the start of a new life, and not just any new life. It is the start of Jesus, and of a new era of seeing beyond the ends of human logic.

Christmas is about birth, dawn, and change. The little child that emmerge unto the world on Christmas day certainly brought about all those three things. Maybe this Christmas, that child will bring them to me too.

Cheers.

Dear God,
                 Christmas is less than 10 days away, and I am yet to enter the holiday spirit. The world must sound of the triumph of the Lord risen again; it must be transcended with contagious joy. And that just is not happening for me; the sky is overcast like it's mourning, and I haven't encountered even the slightest breath of fresh air in more than 24 hours.
                   My family hasn't done much to cultivate the spirit of Christmas ever, but I'm not going to let that get to me. It's going to be Christmas music everywhere, and true reflections of what this time of the year means to me. The Christmas tree isn't just going to be a lanky eyesore; it's actually going to mean something this year.
                The problem is just that after all these years of immersion in society's ideas and my family's inattention, I just don't know what Christmas really means to me. Society has always told me that Christmas is about snow, Santa, and presents and I believed it(even though I've spent most of my life in the tropics, am scared of Santa, and have rarely received Christmas presents). My parents have told me that it's about neat, fancy, new clothes, and listening attentively to the priest as he goes through a Christmas mass, and I've followed (even though my new clothes are usually scratchy and/or far too distracting, and all I ever did during Christmas mass was stare vacantly at the priest as he went through is meaningless words and actions).
                 I know now that Christmas is not about beautiful clothes on my squirming body or dainty presents under the tackily decorated tree; it isn't about a certain sled-borne gentlemen who squeezes through chimneys that are too small for him or even about going to mass because it is an obligation.
I know what Christmas is not, but I don't know what it is.

This next week is going to be my Christmas boot camp; I will find my holiday spirit and I will ground it on the truth.

Cheers.

Dear God,
                 I think most of us Christians are not worthy of your name. Not too many of us can truly say that we are the followers of the purest Lord Almighty.
             If we really did care for and love the one another and the world, we would be less passive. A typical Chirstian goes to church, prays, is always nice to his/her loved ones, and is very charitable with money. That would all be well and good if our role model was someone who did all of those things, and only those things. But Jesus was a revolutionary; he didn't sit around hoping other people would change the world; he went out and did it. Jesus was caring and passionate, witty and loud. He didn't pray piously then sit back and relax: he both prayed and went out into the world. He was no delicate Auntie Annie, he was the face of change.
             None of us who dress impeccably for church and give money to the poor can truly call ourselves Christian because we are fulfilling only one part of the requirement: loving those around us. The other one: loving the world and wanting to make it a better place for everyone, we (most of us) completely ignore.
            I want to be a part of change Lord, and I am convinced that just praying isn't enough. I want to be the instrument of all the prayers like Jesus was, and still is.

Cheers.

Dear God,
                Christianity is seen as rigid, orthodox, and plain snobby. The ideals, and the doctrines themselves, are really not so, but that does seem to be the general facade being put up by the people. Pope Francis is the antithesis of this facade (though you'd expect him to be the facade), and I'm really glad that he's leading the church in this time of questioning norms. But even with a strong, flexible leader, the church is losing fans fast.
           Christians drag your name into everything..
"We live by good Christian values, I stay at home and do all the work while he [my husband] goes out and makes a living," says (something like that) one housewife on Wife Swap.

"God doesn't approve of, or love, gay people," say the protesters outside San Francisco's city hall. 

"It is more important to be Christian than love," a comment on a Youtube video reads.

They bring You to shame.
It is not "good Christian values" to oppress women; You love everyone regardless of their sexual inclination, and being Christian is all about loving!!

Christianity is anything but orthodox and snobby. It's about loving everyone regardless of society's ridiculous standards. We, as Christians, must learn to accept and understand and love. Compassion is the core of our ideals.

I don't like the way Christians behave in society: rising to every taunt of the atheists (who are probably just disillusioned), posting hate comments of the internet, and protesting against minute details like birth control, abortion, and gay marriage.
       I cannot say that I am innocent of any of these "Christian Crimes," but I will try to be a better Christian, and a better human, in the future.

Cheers. 

Dear God,
                 I honestly really like church; it's a stimulating atmosphere. I suppose I should thank our parish priest for that: he's amazing :)

Anyway, this is my interpretation of the Walking on Water scene (This is strange because I'm always standing at the doors of the religion and defending it, and questioning any insults or misconceptions; I never really come inside it to question it).

The water is supposed to represent all that is a slippery slope: all the thoughts that can lead you to question things you really don't want to question (or else you'll find yourself dangling from the edge of the cliff that is your faith - one just has to accept that one doesn't have all the answers).

Outside the water is all that is right and good. All the comfort of being a Christian.

When Jesus told Peter to come out into the waters, He was really telling him to come and live in the world with so many different opinions, skeptics, and self-confident non-believers.
Jesus told Peter that if he kept his eye on the prize (Jesus), he would be able to walk on that water without falling into doubts and existential crises...

The world is like the water; not drowning is a challenge in itself, but walking on water?
If you want to survive in this world, you'll learn how to swim; if you think that this is too much ado, and you just trust in the Lord, then you can make it: just keep your eye on the Prize (Jesus).

How was that? I even made a pictorial representation (this is probably because my father rejected my conjecture completely while favoring our -admittedly awesome- priest's version (which I have forgotten)

The world is like water you can sink into, but keeping your eyes on Jesus will help you like it helped Peter

Cheers.

Dear God,
                This is regarding the poor little girl with cancer I dissed today. I suppose the only reason I was a bit mad about her was because my mother mentioned her to me, and I have trained myself to reject any of my mother's religious advances: they don't seem genuine to me (which is crazy because she is so sin conscious- she's NOT a bad person, but I don't think her type of religion is the same as mine- which is also crazy because we are both Catholics, and she brought me up: we're supposed to have the same faith system).
          Anyway, I shouldn't have been so angry that the little girl prayed for her hair to stay on even after chemo, and got her wish granted. It's just that I was jealous, and also that I needed to prove myself to be a wicked person to my mother (why do I do that?). I ask for things, but I don't ask for things that seems so trivial...I mean hair? really? (but then again, she was a little girl, and she was a brave one. Cancer at an age when the only consequence of the disease you can think of is your impending hair loss? That's a harsh one..)I shouldn't have judged what she asked for, and I shouldn't have been bitter that she got it.
I shouldn't have said that there were people who suffered far more, and deserved this help. It wasn't my place, and I understand that. This is a full apology: I shouldn't have judged whose wishes You grant, and whose wishes You don't. I'm sorry.
        I just think it's unfair that not a hair on that little girl's head fell off (though her health did deteriorate, I heard), when there are homeless veterans, and women in the middle east who can't leave their houses. I just think that suffering and happiness is imbalanced in this world; I wish everyone had the same amount of suffering as they had happiness. I suppose the homeless, and the imprisoned could ask You for help, but they're just so disillusioned by the world; they can't believe in a higher power of goodness because they can't believe in anything. It's always the comfortable and the happy that can believe in God. I mean, I was born a Christian (luckily), and brought up comfortably- only good things happened to me, and that's why I'm so very Christian. I don't know what I would be if I weren't brought up Christian, and good things didn't happen to me. Maybe, I wouldn't believe. I don't really know.
        I want to pray for all those who can't believe, who won't. Life has been tough on them, and I feel guilty leading a better one, and judging them for not calling out to You. I pray for them instead of them. I pray for all of them- can You please make them feel like someone is praying for them? You have a way with those kind of things :)
       
I can't judge people who won't pray, because I know that they deserve miracles too. I'm not angry that that little Christian girl got what she wanted, but I want a little non-Christian girl who has lost her ability to believe to be able to get her miracle too.

I'm a selfish girl myself, but I'd really love for a miracle to happen to a random faithless stranger because I endorsed it. I'm sending my vibes.

Cheers.

Dear God, 

                I just realized how funny I sound, like one of those exclamations mothers (okay older women) make when they're distressed..."Dear God! That child has wet himself again!" Well what else can I say? Anything I write would be just as tacky...

       Anyway. I'm just here to talk about an annoying, piece of interpretation that I read this morning that just won't leave me alone. Here it is, that one passage from Slaughterhouse five by Kurt Vonnegut:

The flaw in the Christ stories, said the visitor from outer space, was that Christ, who didn’t look like much, was actually the Son of the Most Powerful Being in the Universe. Readers understood that, so, when they came to the crucifixion, they naturally thought, and Rosewater read out loud again: Oh, boy—they sure picked the wrong guy to lynch that time! And that thought had a brother: “There are right people to lynch.” Who? People not well connected. So it goes.

I don't think this is a flaw in the Christ stories. This is a reiteration of how awesome they actually are. That Christ, who "didn't look like much" (though, personally, I believe that Jesus was that magnetic type, hypnotizing people when he was high, and freaking them when he was low. All evidence shows that Jesus was a bit bipolar...and I mean that in the best possible way! I admire bipolar people- they're the idealistic ones, the ones who believe in their dreams, the ones who fall when they see the real world), was the Son of the Most Powerful Being in the Universe (I prefer calling You God..). Jesus was sent down on Earth as a mere missionary: a wayward, young prophet. You let Your partner be reduced to that (I, for one, am proud of what Jesus is. He felt. He had that fire in Him.
There were so many things about Jesus, so many types of him:
A. The miracle-worker: Tirelessly performed miracles on the ailing because He could, and He really loved them too much to say nothing in the sidelines when he knew of them.
B. The Chosen One: Seeking out the crowds, going from town to town, and showing us the way to eternal life.
C. The Contemplative Quiet One: Who's that sneaking off to the Mount of Olives to pray again?
D. The Brave Young Prophet: Starting fights in the temple in a rage (Religion becoming a profession, and not a philosophy really irked Him), coolly answering the Pharisees, and then preaching His way (a way so contradictory to the leaders of the umm temple?) to the impressed, and awed, bystanders.
E. The Very Very Human One:
"Father, if it is your will, take this cup [of suffering] away from me. However, your will must be done, not mine." Luke 22:42
That was a moment of breaking down...a moment showing just how human Jesus really was.
F. The Loving One: Jesus always preached love- He loved intensely, and passionately. Rebuking Peter when he tried to talk (worldly) sense into Him.

If I'd seen Jesus' eyes, I would be able to say that there was something in them; He was a beautiful disaster waiting to happen; a flower waiting for the right moment to burst into flames....but I haven't seen him, soo nevermind me haha).

I kinda went on a tangent, but in short I want to that Kurt Vonnegut was wrong when he said the problem with the Christ stories is that Jesus was the Son of God. That's the highlight, that the Son of Gd would come down on Earth and show us how to really live. If He was anyone else, it wouldn't have been as authentic..
What people thought when they read that Jesus had been "lynched" is how even the best people cannot survive in the world. This is because the most important detail about Jesus was not that He was the Son of God, but that He was an incredible man. Sometimes it was easy to forget that He was supposed to be the Christ!

Cheers.

Dear God,
                Darkness is the absence of light. There is no such thing as a force of evil; I think it's something we blame our faults, our sins, on (when in fact, we were probably well aware of them while actually committing them). I hate the idea of Satan, and I hate the idea of evil spirits. I don't even know what to think of them.
              Satan most definitely cannot make us do anything, can he? He's just a symbol, a metaphor right? It's just the evil inside of us that we personify as Satan right? He can't possibly be real. People can't possible be under the illusion that they are all good, and someone just drags them to do what is wrong.
              I refuse to believe in the fallen angel, and I don't really know what to think about the convulsing people they bring onto missionaries' stages- what are evil spirits? Why do they pick particular people?
I can't believe them; there has to be scientific explanation for all of this. Good and evil cannot take physical forms, they are concepts!

There's so much I cannot understand.

Cheers.

Dear God,
                I like it when prayer is conversation, a completely open conversation with all walls broken, and no ulterior motives. Sometimes (or, in my case, every prayer for the past 16 years) prayer is a petition, but sometimes it's just a nice tea-time-esque chat.
                My mother has lately been praying with a group of other people (I was already judging her) for the country. They would assign each other a number of states, and then they would start. This is all very noble of course, this caring for all states of the country. But I hate it so much. This kind of prayer is not conversation. This kind of prayer is fake. My mother researches prayer points, jots them down in a little notebook, and prays according to these points. I'm ashamed of this kind of forced righteous behavior. I don't think it is right to force something as pure as prayer. If you care about someone, or something, you would automatically pray for them/it, you can't force yourself to pray!!
               So there is that problem with forced self-righteousness...

Cheers.

Dear God,
                I don't think blaming is a good idea. I don't.Every single time someone needs strength, they ask You to give it to them. They ask for Your guidance, and Your help. All of this is fine, I know, but then they start believing that You will make everything better; that they can just sit back, and relax while You do all the work. I know Jesus said bring me your yoke, and I will give you rest, but I think He meant that in a more "I will help a soldier carrying a 100 pound pack uphill by giving him encouragement, the mental strength necessary" way than, "I will carry that 100 pound sack for you, soldier!" I wish people would understand that You love us, and You have given us the biggest freedom, and probably best present of all - the freedom of choice. We are all allowed to do what we want; we can choose the route of our lives, You are there when we need You, but You would never just do parts of our lives for us.
               People blame You when things are good in their lives. They say that You made it better, but I know for fact that their choices made them have a good life (You may have put in your divine oar, bbut ultimately they brought about their happiness. However, if they blame happiness on You, they must blame sadness too! They must say things like, "Oh! God is so cruel to me! He made my life so terrible!" but they don't! (and when they do say things like that, they do not blame You for their happiness). People are so inconsistent. I believe You have given us free choice, all the happiness, and the sadness in the world is caused by us, and us only. I do not think a murderer was driven to this sin because of You.

I agree.
From: meetville.com

Cheers.

Dear God,
                I'm worried about college. This is all so hard. Why, oh why is everyone so connected, competitive, calm, and complete? I'm not ready am I?

I don't know where I'm going, and I don't know where I'm going to end up. I just want to ramble you know? I just want to see what the world You made for us has become, what we've made of it...I want to wander, get lost, and enjoy myself. I want to jump off the "highway of bland" I need a college that will help me get on those twisty-turny scenic side-routes. Am I saying that I don't want conventional success? Yes. That is exactly what I'm saying.
         I want to look around, and write, and observe. I have no clear ideas except this romantic notion. Are romantic notions over-rated? Would You say that it's anything more than a silly dream? Can I ever make this my goal?
            In the end, it's all up to You Lord. Where I go defines my future. Where I go defines what I do for the next 4 years, what I learn for the next four years..Guide me well.

Cheers.

Dear God,
               I read the first part of Corinthians chapter 11 for the plain reason that I should have something to write. Am I evil in that respect? You don't need to answer that because I already know.I should read the Bible more...I don't really know why I don't. All of the Christians I know read the Bible for duty, but I didn't want to be one among them, I wanted to be a person who actually read the Bible because she liked it. That's why I stopped reading the Bible in the first place, in an attempt to be more true to myself. A couple years later, here I am, reading the Bible once again for the sake of writing about it, but I think I was wrong the first time. I shouldn't have quit Bible reading until I found it enjoyable, I should have read the Bible until I enjoyed it.
  Why isn't the Bible interesting? It is just as capable of any book when it comes to impressiveness...I don't know what it is that turned me off it those years ago. The one thing I can say about it is Paul's language which is a bit confusing; he questions and answers, and it's all so mixed up. But I like how heartfelt it is. Sometimes, I find his language too strong, too full of feelings, and it surprises me quite a bit. But these are not deal-breakers, I know these could not have been the reason for my Bible-reading-hiatus. I must have found the Bible boring before, but I assure you I can handle it now (I mean, if people can read the Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace, and War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy, I can read the Bible).
       I suddenly thought that I don't read the Bible enough because I "don't have time," but I had time for a whole day of reading Mansfield Park by Jane Austen yesterday. Why would I not be as drawn to the Bible as I am to Jane Austen? Perhaps it's because I am scared of what I am going to learn in the Bible? Scared that all my ways are condemned...I'm scared that I'm doing everything wrong, and prefer to be partially ignorant of my failures...But I already know about what is wrong and right (in both words' crudest senses).
       I know not what makes me repel the Bible. My children's Bible was always so very interesting, but my real Bible...it was a bit long, and harsh, but that was back when I read the Bible word-for-word. I have no defenses left. I have no reason to not read the Bible.
          Please help me just read it.

Cheers.

Dear God,
                I just realized that we all have different interpretations of You. We all believe that You are all-powerful and loving, but the rest of Your characteristics...they're to our discretion. I believe that You are the just God who the Founding Fathers of the Constitution believed in; the God who believes in the natural, unalienable rights we are all born with: equality, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; the God who lets things happen because You want to let us decide what our life is going to be like. You are, at least according to me, the God who loves us: our flaws, our thoughts, and our choices. I mean, You would never hate a murderer...would You? I believe that You understand what a sinner is going through, and wouldn't hate on him/her.
            The theme of Christianity is to let go of our human weakness. Human weakness lies in white lies, and on a higher level, caving in to people pressure and becoming a little too stressed. We will have to try hard to give up our human weakness, but just God, you're not about to just hate us because of our human weakness. You know that this weakness is built into our system, and You understand.

To me, You are the God of understanding, because understanding is something I crave. To someone who values truthfulness, I'm sure You are the God of truth. We all, those who believe in you anyway, believe different things about You. But I just realized that You are all of those things, You are the God of understanding, truth, happiness.....you are the God of EVERYTHING!

Cheers.

Dear God,
                You know that I haven't been talking, or even thinking, about anything of importance lately. My religious activity has, annoyingly, stooped to becoming high (bad word choice. I know.) only in my moments of desperation. I have fallen into many of these "non-Christian spells," and I've noticed my devoted Christian-ness drops still lower after each time. I'm on a slow, shallow staircase bound downwards. But before I stray off into a a paragraphs of self-pity, I'm going to say that Romans 9:12-18 has stunned me.

12 it was said to her, “The older will serve the younger.” 13 Just as it is written, “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.”

¹⁴ What shall we say then? There is no injustice with God, is there? May it never be!¹⁵ For He says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.” ¹⁶ So then it does not depend on the man who wills or the man who runs, but on God who has mercy. ¹⁷ For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, “For this very purpose I raised you up, to demonstrate My power in you, and that My name might be proclaimed throughout the whole earth.” ¹⁸ So then He has mercy on whom He desires, and He hardens whom He desires.

So God, You, made the murderers what they are? You made some people bad? You unjustly chose Jacob over Esau? But why? This, of course, explains all the evil in the world; so people aren't inherently bad? You just choose some to be bad and some to be good? Why would there be hell then? How could you put those people in hell, when You made them what they are?
             Is this a challenge? That we must let go of our human weaknesses? How come some people have it harder than others? I mean, some people have been condemmed to a life of sin, and it is going to be considerably harder for them to denounce their life and become good.
             I couldn't find the exact quote but it was something about the strongest suffering the most. You obviously give the strong at heart the biggest challenge. The lightweights in church, they can't boast...can they? Born and brought up a Christian, I can't have been one of the strong ones-I'm lucky.
             So God, you handpicked many to be inherently bad, but you were just challenging them, throwing them away and waiting for them to come back. You thought that they can handle the struggle. You gave us all choice- to see if we would give up our bodily weaknesses.
     This feels good. Thank you for helping me figure this one out :)

Cheers.

Christian Advice

Dear God,
                “Pray, everything will be okay...”
These words alone define the simple, heartfelt faith of a Christian. To a fellow Christian, it is just a reiteration of the known; a kind of moral support.
But to a non-Christian, it is a kind of savage curse. How can everything be okay without doing anything? How can just a prayer do anything at all? This isn't even advice!
I agree. To a non-christian, with no faith whatsoever, these words are empty; these words imply that one must sit around doing nothing until God notices. These words aren't advice to do something useful (at least in their context); they're like advice to do nothing.
Until there is faith that prayer is relief for the soul, prayer is equivalent to doing nothing. And this faith cannot be achieved by simply telling someone to try prayer (one does not simply try a new existential philosophy). This faith is created when the person learns to trust Christ and the beautiful story of the Bible-which has been passed down through the ages.
I believe that when a random person comes in need of advice, a Christian's standard response shouldn't be one which asserts their own faith, but one which actually tries to help. The building of faith must be gradual. A time of crisis, especially, isn't the best time for such faith-building, or a time to convince someone to step into the murky waters (as far as they're concerned) of a different religion.

I'm glad I've gotten that off my chest; I always feel pressurized to help people in need, but never know what to say. I really want to tell them to stop struggling and just believe (I clearly want to preach what I just can't seem to practice), but I also really don't want to be cast aside as a useless adviser.
I want to help, but I just can't seem to bring Christianity into the equation.

Cheers.

Dear God,
                 I wonder what how You would respond to that video..Was it perfect, hitting the point, correct? Or was it borderline offensive? Of course, everything he said about Jesus was true; he has the exact same views on Christianity as me (which makes me feel less bad about myself). But what about everything he said about the Church...I mean calling it a perfumed casket? It's an accurate analogy, but it's still rude. I believe the reasons the church today is as Orthodox as it is, are the people inside it. The clergy is aging. (Pope Francis, on the other hand, is incredibly unconventional; I have hope in him. Maybe he could call the next Vatican Council? Isn't it time for one anyway?) We need newer minds running the Church, I understand.

                     But when he says, "Religion is man searching for God, and Christianity is God searching for man," I started to disagree. Why would I not? Many has to search for God too, He (You) can't do it all. Man has to reciprocate the love of God (by man I mean human). 

                      In the end of the video, he (the guy) even quotes Romans 4:5 - 

"But to him who does not work but believes on Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is accounted for righteousness,"

To simplify this: But to he who doesn't work (is lazy, lethargic etc.) but atleast believes in Jesus, his belief makes him a good person.
          Could that be true? It doesn't seem very right. How could a bad person, who knows that he/she is bad, abuse the grace of God and get away with it? I mean, I could go to Church and absolutely adore God, but if I keep not being a good person won't I be a bad person?
         Paul's letter to the Romans confuses me greatly. Greatly.

I agree that the Church is not "a museum for good people, but a hospital for the broken." I agree that sometimes Christians are a bit judgmental, and turn up their snobby noses, but the core principals are still right. The people still have the right principals to live by; they've just never been in a position where they could be bad, and so they don't understand sinners. We must always try to look from the other person's point of view. That is why it is so hard to judge people; they are so complicated.
           Overall, the poem is beautiful and bold. It strongly, and rightly, criticizes the stereotypical church, and makes its point be known. I love it, and I love that there's someone putting his views out there today :)

Cheers.

Dear God,
                Reading the early books of the bible is like reading a story written for kids. Surely the story was simplified for the people of Israel to understand, for Moses, who wrote it, to understand.
               The lightning-quick 6 days of creation must have 6 millennia for us; the tower at Babel...I don't even know. Genesis is a series of stories written in an overly simple manner, and it often doesn't have a moral. What does the story of the Tower of Babel tell us? People mustn't be unified or they will plot bad things (that seems to be coming true....and it also explains are emphatic hatred of communism). The book seems to be explaining things that just are...like "why do people talk different languages?," or "what is the story behind the rainbow?" instead of teaching us, and instructing us through the wisdom of the ages.
               People who attack Christianity, they only find faults in this section...They obviously don't get that You told Moses the simplified version :/ that must be it.

                   It's just that the Old Testament is so different from the New Testament. The God of the Old Testament is fierce, he's scary. He's the gruff, but protective, father-type. While God in the New Testament is God The Father, the one we run to when we're in trouble, the one who pats are heads as we cry into his shoulder, the one who is undeniably (undeniably...I say it twice because I know. I just know) personified by Professor Dumbledore.
          I've always questioned that...why did You have a sudden change of heart? But then I realized that You didn't have a change of heart, we did. People started to respect those who ruled with love better than those who ruled with fear. People started to withdraw from You, and You decided to show Your real self.

The Old Testament is a bit of a mess that I can't quite understand. Besides telling us an underestimating story, it does nothing.
I hope You'll help me figure it out.

Cheers.

Dear God,
                The coolest passage in the Bible (at least for now)?
Romans 8: 1-13

Wait. Wait, does this say what I think it says?

So when I read this, I was all like-

Does this say that as long as your mind is strong, your body's sins are forgiven?

"By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh," Oh. My. God-ness (I will never take the name of the Lord my God in vain. Ever). It does say that.

But, "Those who are in the flesh cannot please God," so even if our sins through our flesh are forgiven, we do not please God. The whole situation is nuetralized: we neither please God nor displease him (as long as our mind is strong).

But as I read on, I saw that the Spirit of God not only make ones mind strong, but also ones flesh.

So in the end, it is the Holy Spirit that will make all things good for us; They (as in the holy spirit/ Jesus/ God: I refuse to believe on the Holy Spirit as male, They aren't even a person!) will make us strong so that the weak, forgiven flesh will become as strong as our Holy-Spirit reinforced (for lack of a better word) minds.

This passage shows the freedom of christianity, it shows that You love us and understand that we cannot help but sin! It shows that You care for us, and You are giving us the choice, the freedom, to do what we want, but You are suggesting that we take Your help (which of course, we will take eventually!) without forcing us to take it.

            Christianity is a religion of freedom and choices :)     

Cheers.

Dear God,
                It's Palm Sunday, the beginning of Holy Week- home stretch. I broke my lent yesterday to watch a movie that wasn't even worth it. Technically, since Jesus only fasted for 40 days while our lent season is 46 days long, I've got a 6 day buffer, but I feel like a terrible person (probably because I broke my lent for something so stupid, with the lamest excuse ever).  I should redo yesterday; I wish we could do that.
           Have I ever completed my lent? No, I have not.
But maybe that's the point; maybe we only have to try our very best to do what Jesus did. Maybe the whole point is to fail and realize the sacrifices Jesus made for us. Maybe.
           Through lent do we realize our human weaknesses, or do we overcome them? This lent all I learnt was that I am an extremely shallow person who is incapable of being happy without watching happy endings in movies (I've been watching final scene clips on YouTube all through lent, because technically they aren't movies). I've learnt that I rely on human things to make me happy, but the thing is, I am human. Jesus gave up earthly things for 40 days, but I can't. Why? Jesus was human then too.
           I think that the point of lent was to make us stronger humans. It was supposed to make us understand that there is so much more to life than just earthly pleasures. It was supposed to make us less dependent on our human tendencies, and make us more like God, like Jesus.
          So this holy week, I'm going to try to lose my human tendency to sin. I'm going try, and I'll keep trying till I do it. I see now that the point of lent is to try your best to be more like God. When you fail, it only teaches you how strong Jesus was, and when you succeed, it shows you that human pleasures aren't nearly as good as God's idea of pleasure.

        I'm sad I broke my lent because my decision had been conscious. I thought about it, but I still did it. But I'm happy because I know that, as Jesus did it when he was human, it is possible to do it.

Cheers.

Dear God,

                Do you think that the world is bad today? We all do seemingly bad things but don't even feel it. Some things that seem so right in our eyes are wrong according to the Bible. It seems like a silly question to ask, but who's right- the Bible or the people? I often think of the Bible as an incredibly sexist book; times have changed haven't they? Shouldn't that make things different?
                For example, dating is a thing today that was absolutely forbidden in the biblical times (when you married someone you didn't know and had kids with them; case closed). Today marriages come out of love and long-term relationships, and they're full of love. But these long-term relationships are preceded by a number of short ones which don't work out but are a part of life; they give us memories and make us who we are. Casual dating, I admit, is wrong (unless one's looking for love, one should not go around and just have sex). But sometimes short-term relationships were serious and just didn't work out. These short-term relationships are also considered adultery, I know. But how, other than by dating, can we find the one who's supposed to be our soulmate?
                  In the biblical times, marriage was more like the thing to do; a rite of passage. Today, it's more of a luxury; a lucky chance. Today, people marry because they love each other and want to spend the rest of their lives with each other, not because it is what you do at the age of 35 (or 17 as in the case of the biblical times). Today, it feels so wrong to marry someone without at all dating them first. How can you spend the rest of your life with a stranger?
                Is our gut feeling against instant marriage wrong, or is it time for you to tell us how to live again? I would prefer if we had some sort of clarification. Times have changed.

Cheers.