people of faith (and i am speaking in this blog post today about the Christian faith specifically) are on a continuum in terms of the maturity of that faith. little kids, for example, say they love Jesus and offer prayers to Him but for the most part, they don't know what they're talkin' about. they're just doing what their parents told 'em to do.
kids who are about 9 or 10 might be starting to grasp things a teensy bit better. but not by much.
adolescents don't get it, either, but they think they do. so they begin to drop out.
the rest of adulthood is sort of a mish-mash of this, that, and the other where faith and maturity are concerned. somewhere in this mess, a lot of adults continue to practice their faith just because it's what they've always done. immature.
other adults - i would propose most adults - have maybe delved into their faith a bit deeper and practice it currently not because they necessarily buy it hook, line, and sinker but because they buy at least the basic tenets of it and, moreover, they're scared of what's gonna happen to them in the next life if they don't buy into it. not the highest reason to believe, but not stupid, either.
then there are those with a pretty doggone rock solid, unshakable faith. these guys have a very deep love of Christ. this is about as mature as most any of us get. and it's pretty darned good. it's still rooted in some degree of selfishness, but it's pretty impressive nevertheless.
and then there are those rare few who really get it - who commit their whole lives to it, like the clergy and the nuns and the monks and the religious hermits. and the reason people like that commit their whole lives to isn't because they fear hell (though they probably do) but because they love God. period. and they love Him so much that they want every aspect of their lives to be in service to Him and in conformity to Him. in short, they love Him more than they love themselves. that's as mature a faith as you can get. and most of us don't have it.
most of us, in my view, and as i pointed out above, are in that group that's scared as hell of hell. and i think that being scared as hell of hell, if not the penultimate in faith maturity, is at least a reasonable place to be/start. it's a place from which, hopefully, one will launch into something deeper. something better. something non-selfish. the real deal.
besides. being scared as hell of hell makes freaking sense. because even though practicing one's faith primarily (or only) because one is afraid of the consequences of not practicing it isn't a good (enough) reason to practice it, it's an intelligent reason. it might not be particularly holy, but it's smart.
look, folks, either the believers are right or the non-believers are. if the non-believers turn out to be right, the believers who die aren't gonna know they were wrong. no harm, no foul!
if the believers are right, however, the non-believers are sure as hell - pun intended - gonna know they weren't.
how smart are you? never mind how holy.
how smart?
