Healthy or Unhealthy
A healthy body is alive and moving with ease. A unhealthy body is hurting and diseased. Healthy religion offers good news and hope. Unhealthy religion is contentious and judgmental. Following are two key words that serve as a form of diagnostic criteria for healthy and unhealthy religion and religious experience.
Image
Some of our most precious moments in life are looking at our children taking their earliest breaths. That can briefly melt even the heart of most tyrants. As a parent it is fun to see our newborn baby and notice their facial features and see how they look like us. They reflect our physical image. They are created to favor us. Similarly, we are created as we grow to look like our Father in heaven, yielded to take on His character, His love and forgiveness.
Healthy religion sees the entire human race created in God’s Image. Unhealthy religious experience seeks consciously and unconsciously to conform God to our image, thus finding some justification for self-centered decisions and behavior. Relinquishing our inherent human bias will allow us to see ourselves and all others as created by God to be His human family. Humbly relating to God allows us to see everyone as God’s creation regardless of our flawed human perceptions and feelings. All His children are each equally important to our Creator. This is foundational in shaping our attitudes and treatment of all His creation.
Truth
When a patient rejected his diagnosis his doctor stated, “He denied realty to fit a narrative.” Essentially, healthy religious experience follows God to discover His truth. Truth can be painful because it interferes with our favorite, comfortable narratives. Still, truth matters. Meeting God starts with searching for truth.
Untruth is never true simply because we want it to be. Wishing, clothed in persuasion and power will not make a lie true. Truth bears witness of itself when we search with integrity. We do not want our children to believe and tell lies. God does not want His children, you and me, to believe and tell lies. We are saddened when our children lie and believe their own lies. God is saddened when His children lie and believe our lies. Satan is the father of lies. God is truth. Without truth, life goes downhill quickly.
A healthy day can begin by asking ourselves: Do I really want the truth God sees? Do I really want to see others as images of God while growing in His image? Only with God’s truth and vision can our unhealthy souls and world heal.
Blog picture inside a church on the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem echoing peace in three languages. This peace begins with the contrition of God’s children.
Great content! Keep up the good work!