“Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma – which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of other’s opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.”
~Steve Jobs
I have been accosted by street preachers. Plenty of times. The weirdest thing happens if you actually stand and talk to them a while.
I have a minor in religion. If you actually take the time to stand and talk to them you’ll find that they have an unusual grasp on being able to regurgitate scripture. They can recite plenty of verses from anywhere in the Bible.
But when pressed into the reason “why” and “well, how do I actually do that on a daily basis” their answers get thin and stumbling.
“So… how now do I live with the smoldering ashes are quenched?”
“Okay, I’m not an adulterer or fornicator or dirty dancer, but what happens when the temptation of such things set in?”
“Where does evil come from?”
“Why is there pain in the world if God loves us like you say?”
“Why are the Gospels different?”
Fairly simple questions with extremely complex answers.
Its as if the concept of a “street preacher” is just exactly that: a preacher. Standing up on a high, lofty place separated from those who ask the questions. The real questions. And, any of them I’ve ever had contact with – from Athens, Georgia, to Dallas, Texas, and New York City – it gets them at a loss for words if you actually try to have a religious discussion with them.
So what does this say about the religion they’re hustling. Like the romances that seem to end perfectly at the end of most of the chick-flicks I’ve ever seen (marriage ends at the wedding and they live happily ever after) pitching a product that expires after the sting of Revelation and hell-fire and brimstone wears off.
There’s a certain amount of your life that you must follow your heart. Think for yourself. We’re living in an ‘if it feels good, do it’ world when not everything that ‘feels good’ is anything close to ‘good’…
No offense, but if street preachers are an representation of Christianity as a whole, very few people would have any business being a Christian… or have any desire to be in the first place. At least, in any case that I’ve ever been accosted by.
Religion is meant to be a freedom, not a crutch. Religion is meant to be something to help you, not hinder you from living.
Stay tuned,
-Noah D.
