15 More Weeks of Prayer Blogging

What else can I say, God? This is my half way point of blogging my prayer and typing them out. When I make the time for this conversation with you, I believe it is a good thing, it’s good for my soul.

I was going to say I know instead of I believe. I know that, is just another way of saying that, I believe that. So there are different senses of that word know.

I’m reminded of this because of a recent chat about epistemology. I think of that study of beliefs and believing is adjacent to philosophy, the love of ideas. Yes, I naturally. gravitate to the abstract, and that puts me in the minority. So be it. The question posed was, how do I believe what I believe?

There are some things I know by experience, as I have known and learned through my 5 senses. There are other things I believe because someone told me, and I believe and trust them, even though I have not experienced what they told me.

There are other things that I believe by faith; these would things that are not able to be proven in the tangible and physical world. And in the world of faith, there isn’t full consensus by everyone about what is true or what is real. Here’s the thing: people have different perspectives and have disagreements over all kinds of things, like politics, aesthetics that people say about how beauty is in the eye of the beholder, what really happened in a history (thus we have historical revisionists). Majority opinion isn’t necessarily the best way to determine truth, right?

Believing the Invisible

Heard a good commentary on a podcast, that we humans all believe something about the invisible. It’s not only regarding spirituality or religious faith. When we have fear or anxiety or worry about the future, that is believing something invisible and unproven about the future. The Bible does put quite a contrast and juxtaposition between faith and fear.

Oh, God, help me to believe with faith and not give in to fear. I don’t like anxiety, and I don’t like worry. More often than not, I do worry and I do feel anxious. Replace that with your goodness. It’s easier to replace thoughts and feelings than to will myself to stop a thought or stop a feeling. At least I’ve heard that is how it works.

I do wish that people who don’t believe in a faith tradition would be less upset and frustrated and debating people of faith. I too am annoyed by people that proselytize. But when I encounter people that have a different faith, I want to treat them with respect and that’d include respecting their beliefs that I don’t agree with. I don’t have to voice my disagreement and be ugly about it. Look, if someone’s faith helps them gain strength and courage to live a better quality life for them, that is quite alright, I don’t need to take that away from them.

What if I miss a week?

Looking at my previous blog post’s date, I see that I missed a week of blogging. I have a choice here. I can either blog for the duration of 30 weeks, and miss a week here or there, and maybe pray-blog twice a week some time. Or, I could make sure I pray-blog at least 30 times, even if it takes me longer than 30 weeks. Help me make a good decision here and follow through.

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