The word "religious"

Before reading this, please know that this post is a copy of my own personal journal. Its a message that is not intended for any one person but for all.   These thoughts I have written down that I think are good things to think about.  Though I may fail at this at times, my goal here is to develop my listening skills with the intent to understand. Most people listen with the intent to reply.

The word "religious"

 

I often hear the phrase " I'm not religious, im just living a Christian lifestyle."  People who say this phrase are often the same kind of people who will use the example of a strict church or group of people that will kick someone out for drinking, smoking or being seen doing worldly things. They claim that living the Christian lifestyle is not about judging people who aren't perfect, but rather encouraging people to do their best in battling those worldly desires so God can bless us.  They then go on to say, "Christianity is not a religion, its the truth, its the way of life." 

 

They are correct in that as Christians, we aren't here to judge people. It’s not our place to. We are here to encourage people to seek the truth so they may be able to see and choose the journey that brings them to a fulfilling life with God.  However, they are incorrect in using the words "I am not religious."  I believe that before even using the word “religious”, we need to know what it means, to us, to other people, and the correct definition given in the dictionary.

 

In the online Miriam-Websters dictionary these are the definitions:

1: relating to or manifesting faithful devotion to an acknowledged ultimate reality or deity religious

person> <religious attitudes>

2: of, relating to, or devoted to religious beliefs or observances religious

order

3: scrupulously and conscientiously faithful

In my own words, being religious is synonymous with being faithfully devoted to something.

You can therefore be religious because of your faithfulness to your spouse, devotion to consistently journaling and reading scripture or even unceasing prayer. According to these definitions every Christian should be religious, they are in fact called to be faithful to the lord and devoted to his kingdom are they not?  You can even be religious because you faithfully wait until every sunday just so you can watch the new episode of the Walking Dead or from this month, the Game of Thrones season 3.

When I hear, "It's not a religion, its a relationship, lifestyle….etc."  What I believe my good willing Christian friends really mean is "I'm not legalistic."  After all, it is the Law that condemns us but Jesus who sets us free.

 

Often I hear stories about many people who don't know much about Christianity stepping in to a church or running into a group of people praying somewhere like a public place, lets say McDonalds or Starbucks, and they think “those guys are religious, those guys are weird.” 

But many of my protestant brothers will do the same thing when they think about the Orthodox or Catholic Churches. They hear about a church that has icons, tons of traditions dating back hundreds of years, priests that wear robes, and no rock band and think, “that's weird. I don't understand that.”

 

The problem here isn't that it’s weird. It’s that we are failing to look at each other with the intent to understand. We just dismiss it as foreign and go on our merry way.  We want the world to look at us and see the light of God, but many dismiss us as a bunch of crazies.  But are we not doing the same thing when we look at our brothers of the other major branches of Christianity? We don't even try to understand where the traditions came from.. we dismiss it as religious and go on our way.

My call to my brothers and sisters who read this is to:

-Please do your research on certain terminology before you use it in conversation because it may mean something different to someone else.

-also, please open your eyes and realize that no matter what denomination you or anyone else is, Christians still have a lot to learn from each other no matter how different they look.

Happy Easter!  Sorry that im writing this at 2am, April 1st Japan time. -_- and  i don't have pictures of cute bunnies T_T.