The Journey Begins

     Since most of you are not aware of me and my more than interesting life, I will take a moment or three to give you some back on the strange and odd journey my exploration of religions and spirituality has been.  Hopefully that will help you all understand exactly how far I have come and how far I have to go in this journey of revelation and healing.

     Religion in its myriad shapes and forms has been a part of my life for literally longer than I can remember.  My Mom was dragging me and my siblings to church as soon as we were out of the hospital and home.  My Mom was a big believer in GOD and went to church (Pardon the pun) religiously Sunday Morning, Sunday Night, Wednesday Evening and any other day that someone might be up in the pulpit preaching. 

     I like to say that my Mom was a Church Groupie because she went to churches that had the loudest and most energetic preachers.   She’d switch churches and Sects at the drop of a Bible if someone told her that Church X had an exciting new Pastor behind the podium.  I recall that I was probably Baptized at least 6 times while I was growing up.  We were Baptists, Southern Baptists, Methodists and I think we were even briefly Episcopalians at one time as Momma jumped from Church to Church.

     So needless to say, by the time I was about sixteen and old enough to refuse to go, I had just about been churched out.   I was tired of the shouting, yelling and speaking in tongues.   I told my Mom that I wasn’t going to church with her anymore, even though I did offer to drive her to the meetings every week.  Momma took it hard, but hey I could do what I wanted to do.

     So over the next couple of decades, I pretty much ran the entire gamut of Religion.  I was briefly an Atheist; Agnostic for a long period of time, even tried my hand at certain Pagan religions like Druidism and Wicca.  Basically wound up a Deist by the end since I mostly believed in a higher power but was pretty unsure about religions in general and Christianity in particular.

     Recently my wife and I made a major leap of faith and moved from our home in Georgia to our Nation’s Capitol so that my wife could have a better job with a better future.  Financially the move made no sense, but everything seemed to be pointing us towards this so we moved.  My Wife’s best friend allowed my wife to stay with her while we looked for a new house. 

     For those who have never met her, Stephanie and her family are what I like to call the perfect examples of what good Christians should be.  They are happy, loving and almost insanely helpful.  They go out of their way to help everyone who needs their help and truly seem to care about the people around them.  They are also Mormons.  While my wife was staying with them, she was exposed to the since they work in the Spanish Wards.) and listened to their quiet but caring stories and lessons. 

     As time progressed, we both began to appreciate the incredible power of these wonderful peoples’ faith and became more and more interested in exactly what that faith was based on.  I especially identified with Joseph Smith.  We both looked at the literally hundreds of religions all around us and wondered exactly which one was right.  We both knew that all of them couldn’t be right, but we had no idea which one was the true word of God.

     Unlike Smith, I didn’t receive a revelation from God or suddenly have my doubts cast away.  Instead, I have begun a slow and sometimes frightening trek towards what I hope is the truth.  Since we made this leap of faith to move, there have been so many small signs that we are indeed on the right path.  I like to believe they are also signs that our faith is headed in the right direction.

     My journey is a slow one and I am uncertain of my final destination, but for the first time in a long time I feel I might be on the right path.  With the help of the church and its amazing members, I hope I can stay on this difficult path.

Amen