Daria Doering

MY SELFISH REASONS FOR ATTEMPTING TO BE RELIGIOUS

I don’t see religion as a bunch of sanctimoniousness, and I don’t even claim to be religious.  But I do try, for what I have to admit are selfish and pragmatic reasons.  Maybe some day I’ll be so highly evolved that I will have greater purity of intent, as one might call it.  But for now, these are the reasons that I “try to be religious,” and try to impart these ideals to my children.

1)    Power.  For anyone who desires power and accomplishment, as I do, God is the ultimate power.  Anyone who does not hook up with God, is not allying him or herself with the greatest power, where all power resides.  I try to always be on God’s side, to fight the good fight, so that I might receive God’s power.

2)    Comfort.  In terms of comfort, the daily struggles of life, and coping, I believe that God is the ultimate source of comfort.  It is a comfort to pray, to have friends from church, to know that angels are watching over us, and to know that suffering is a gift from God.

3)    Self-control.  I’ve had a problem all my life in that my mind tends to be filled with rot.  I tend to constantly daydream about romance, success, beauty, anything to feed my apparently starving ego.  And I get the feeling that I’m not alone, that many people tend to be like this.  But does anyone really like having their minds filled with this type of pathetic junk?  I believe in dreaming and planning, but it’s like worrying; if you do it all the time, it’s a sickness.  I find that repeating memorized prayers to myself, or conversationally praying, is a cure for this habit.  It’s a way to fill my head with thoughts that are uplifting, dignified, and helpful.  It’s a way of directing my thoughts in less selfish directions.

4)    God’s plan.  I am a natural born planner.  I think my greatest joy in life is in constantly dreaming up some wild scheme or another.  But I truly believe that God is the great planner.  I have a hard time with the concept of “following God’s will,” and who knows for sure if we’re really doing it?  But when I do give up my own plans and go in the direction that life seems to be taking me, it always turns out to be for the best.  So many times lately, I’ve had the experience of something awful happening.  But it always turned out to lead to something better.  God’s plans are so infinitely greater than ours.

5)    Goodness.  The world really can’t function or be a happy place without decent people.  You can have character education without God, which is a great thing in places like public schools where religion cannot be a component.  But I think good character traits are more easily taught with God, with the principles that Jesus taught.

6)    Connection.  Religion is a wonderful way to connect with others.  The religious are like a voluntary association of people who believe in the same values; for essentially unselfish reasons.  That’s what always strikes me the most when I go to church: people have given up their prime time on the weekend in order to voluntarily be good, study goodness, worship God.

7)    Values.  We all need to know how to live, and religion tells us.  In terms of staying married, for example, I believe that marriage is a sacrament.  Staying married is mostly a matter of commitment, and religion gives us the basis for that commitment.

8)    Inspiration, encouragement…