There's Just One You
Okay, before we get too far down this blog path, I’ve got to come clean about something. This is like the single mom telling a guy on the third date that she has a kid. And she needs to tell him before they go any further. (I’ve never actually been through that, but I’ve seen it on The Bachelor, so it must be real...because it was on ABC. And everything on ABC is 100% accurate. You’re reading sarcasm, right?)
So here it goes.
::Deep breath::
I believe in God. And I’m a crazy, non-denominational Jesus follower.
::GIANT deep breath::
Yikes. That was scary.
Those are not widespread or popular things to say these days. We don’t talk about those things unless we know for certain the person on the other side of the conversation has the same beliefs. Or at least that’s how I’ve acted the past 30-some years of my life. The truth is, I’ve spent most of my life being confused about God. I’ve been a God-believer, a God-denouncer, and everything in between. So this is a big proclamation for me.
Some of you who are reading this know me as I am now, so you’re totally unsurprised and completely unfazed by this. There’s another group of people reading this, though. A group of people that has been in the same camp as me most of my life. The confused, indifferent, or given-up on God group. Maybe they were scorned by a church. Maybe they felt confused by the church they grew up in (that’s me!). Maybe they were just flat out never taught anything about God. So, they just don’t talk about it. It’s just easier that way.
I think most of us walk around saying words like “The Universe” and “someone up there” and “a higher being” instead of just saying “God”. I’ve been there. Those words seem less scary and more inclusive at times.
So here it is. I believe in God. So I’m going to say God. I might even say it on this blog…and then post it on the internet for everyone to read. Feel free to get your emoji “shocked face” out now. Yes, the one with the big open eyes. (It’s a favorite of mine.)
See, somewhere along the line, most of us were taught to not talk about money, politics, or religion. Because of that, we don’t actually have good conversations about money, politics, or religion. We’re a population that’s stuck in whatever we learned when someone stopped teaching us these things.
We are a country built on consumer (and national, for that matter) debt. But we don’t talk about it.
We live in a time where our country is so harshly divided in politics, it would be very unwise to bring it up in mixed company (of course, with the exception of mudslinging our friends on social media…sarcasm again…).
And we are a society that’s so afraid of being judged or insulting that we don’t talk about our beliefs. Personally, I can’t keep up with whether we’re a “nation under God” in our schools or if I’m allowed to pray for my LGBTQ friends in church. It’s exhausting to keep up all the walls all the time.
I think many of us are keeping careful track of what “hat” we’re wearing in each situation. Wear your corporate hat when you’re at work but don’t let on that you wear a parent hat at home. Put on your parent hat when you walk through the door at night but pretend to not be exhausted from the 8-10 hour day at work you just put in. Be a standup spouse at the end of a long week but ignore that you need time just to yourself. Have spiritual beliefs when you’re at your church/temple/mosque/etc. on the weekend but pretend like they don’t exist Monday-Friday.
If you don’t keep careful track, you might wind up being the “wrong” version of yourself in the wrong situation!
A good friend of mine recently told me this story about a meeting at work. She works at a run-of-the-mill giant secular corporate office. Now, I know this friend believes in God but generally doesn’t wear that belief on her sleeve with the exception of Sunday mornings and her weekly women’s’ group at church.
This particular meeting involved big decisions to solve big problems. At a critical point in the meeting, my friend threw out a potential solution to a problem. In response, one of the head honchos of the group asked her “How do you know that will work out in our favor?”. My friend responded with what she would describe as a monologue that continued for several minutes, slowly building into a crescendo of energy and without thinking she exclaimed, “Because I think it’s the right decision, and I believe that the good Lord will provide!” At which point (and here’s the kicker!) 2 other women in the meeting immediately responded “Amen!”.
My friend later told me she had no idea why she said that in a work meeting; it simply sprang forth (hello Holy Spirit moment!) and that she surely had no idea that other people in the room would respond with a resounding “Amen!”. She walked out of the meeting a little shell-shocked but with the comfort that she had discovered some previously unknown common ground with her co-workers.
Listen…it can be exhausting wearing all the hats and remembering who you’re supposed to be in all the situations we find ourselves each day. What if we threw caution to the wind and just wore all our hats, all the time? What if there was just one version of ourselves that we could be, comfortably, all the time? Would we surprise some people at first? Probably. They might learn things about us they didn’t know.They might learn our spiritual beliefs…or that we’re depressed…or that we’re broken inside from recent life trauma...the list goes on.We might also find out that the person on the other side of the conversation has been through what we’ve been through.They may be willing to lend a hand, a hug, or just an encouraging word. They’ve heard us and, better yet, we’ve been true to ourselves.We might find we make more allies than we’d expect – or, at the very least, offer people a little more perspective in our lives.
So at the risk of sounding like that single mom confessing about her kid on the 3rd date...
I’m a God-believer, and I really like you. I really think we have something here. And I’d really like to see where this goes.
If you’re not wildly insulted by this, I’d like you to stick around. I promise not to be that guy holding a stack of Bibles yelling at you on the corner of your college campus. (Oh, was that just my college?) I’m just going to keep writing about Good things…and sometimes not so Good things. And I might say God every now and then. But I’m still the same me.
Now you go be YOU.
Curious what I’m going to say next? (Me too!) Make sure to subscribe at the bottom of this page. And as always, you can see what I’m up to between blog posts on Facebook at Living A Goode Life or on Instagram at aGoodeLifeBlog. And you can always shoot me an old fashion email at heythere@livingagoodelife.org.
