Rellgion

I wrote a few years ago:  Christianity is a life—not a belief.  We restrict the very essence of this faith when we make it only a matter of belief!  After all, Jesus did say that He came “that they [we] might have life, and have it abundantly” (John 10:10).   

Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote:  “Religion in the mind is not credulity (real or true because I believe it), and in the practice is not form.  It is a life.  It is the order and soundness of a man (woman).  It is not something else to be got, to be added, but is a new life of those faculties you have.  It is to do right.  It is to love, it is to serve, it is to think, it is to be humble.”

I’m not saying that what we believe doesn’t make a difference and is not important.  But I would assert with Dag Hammerskjold that “God does not die on the day when we cease to believe” in God.  I would also assert with Emerson that religion is not something to be got, to be added, but something already within us, ready to bud and to flower—to do right, to love, to serve, to think, and to be humble.  Religion is a life—not a belief.