Reframing My Faith

 

Today I went on a nice walk to the lake since the weather was nice and the sun was out. As I walk walking some of the things that have been going through my head for lent started percolating and I ended up with a new modal for my personal faith. Not bad for an nice afternoon walk. :)

First I recognize that since I was raised pretty much secular, when I was growing up I did not have a clear faith tradition to be actively involved with. And the faith leaders who were on TV were really grumpy and mean and did not ingratiate themselves to me. So I gravitated to characters and their world view stories such as the character Delenn's we are all parts of the universe trying to figure itself out.

Second I have adopted an "American God's" framework where there are lots of gods who need our belief in order to stay alive. This pared with deep seating issue making choices, means being in a position where I feel I am choosing one God or set of Gods over another, is complicated.

Third the faith tradition I have ended up in, was more a case of finding a cool community I wanted to be part of than any deep seated theological reasoning or belief. It was really like finding a cool group who was into a different fandom and becoming part of that fandom because that is what they were talking about.

So:

As I was walking and thinking about some of my plans for Easter, I thought it might be nice for my friends such as Ganesh, Captain Cold, Loki maybe a Thunderbird .... to be there as witnesses for parts of some of the personal rituals I am creating to celebrate this year. And I realized that this was a friends modal that works well for me right now. (And yes I am aware knowing myself, ask me next week and I might come up with a different modal)

I can have one tradition which is the equivalent of my "faith family" or maybe my "home base" faith. This works well and reminds me that while I might have chosen one faith because of social reasons and I might have been just as likely to have ended up in a different faith tradition in a different situation in truth if I was born in a different time or place or universe I would have a different "family" family too. 

I can have many other Gods/Characters/Stories/Myths which are the equivalent of my friends. Yes it can be a lot of fun to hear stories about what these individuals have gotten up to over the course of history, and hear about all the trouble they caused and had to creatively find solutions to. We can hang out, eat good food, laugh, and in general have a great time. 

And there will be times when these "friend Gods" and their faiths feel much cooler and more exciting that my "faith family"/"home base faith", because the grass often looks greener on the other side, but that is how it works with all relationships. I don't have to be all things to all gods in order to be there to listen and believe in them and for us to have many thoughtful adventures.