This cartoon sums up my beliefs PERFECTLY!!!
Shout out to Naked Pastor!!!
Check out the lastingsupper.com and the nakedpastor.com!!! The Featured Image for this blog is artwork provided by the Naked Pastor!
I truly believe finding the Naked Pastor was “A God Thing.” ❤️ Please read below for more info!
Hello Tired Troopers!
“I got the Holy Spirit! It’s a good train – you should get on it!”
Now, quick disclaimer: This is a pretty long read and I do get “Preachy” – pun intended! But, it is because it took me my entire life to unpack how my heart feels surrounding this topic and something like this is so complex that it can’t be a short excerpt. Please don’t freak out and start picketing after reading this blog… people freak over their religious beliefs. I’m not here to throw stones at any one religion, but I think religion, as a whole, has some major issues that man made, that I dont agree with. That said, I got the Holy Spirit! And it’s a good train – you really should get on it!!!!!
My God is accepting of all. I started saying “My God” after I came back to him. It’s a long story, one that I will fully explain later, but my Dad left our family. Yes, left, left. He didn’t run to the store and never come back. He methodically planned and chose to leave us, even when we were bawling, asking for an explanation, a reason why, and begging him not to. But that’s a much longer story for another time. His sudden departure from our lives was immediately followed by some other tragic events, and I had had it! I had been pushed to my absolute limit and just couldn’t take it anymore. I was broken. Everyone in our extended families (on both sides) had deserted us, and I was done! I was done with God. But, after I had the time I needed to heal, my relationship with God came out bigger, better, and stronger through all of it. It was after this that I started taking personal ownership of my relationship with him by calling him, “My God.”
Have you ever read the book, The Shack? Yeah, me either… but I watched the movie! And I bawled my eyes out because, man, I resonated with it! The Mom/Wife calling God, Mama?! That’s what My God is to me! And, yes, growing up in the church conditioned me to call God a “Him,” but your God can be anything you need them to be! My Mom, sis, and I just recently had a girls’ night, and we had a BLAST! We laughed and talked about anything and everything (as we always do), midnight margaritas were involved (as they always are), and we stayed up until the sun came up and birds were singing! Well, at one point the convo turned to religion, God, and spirituality. My sis said that she was having a hard time trusting God lately because Dad had severely let us down all those years ago and just recently her husband did the same thing, so she was just really feeling guarded towards all men and was worried that was bleeding into her relationship with God because he was a “Him.”
I looked at her and said, “I know the majority of religions have conditioned us to refer to God as a “Him,” but who’s to say that’s right? Why can’t your God be a woman? Especially if that’s what you need to make you feel more comfortable? Or a “they,” for that matter? Because, technically, God is comprised of the Holy Trinity, right? So, God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit are all one in the same, so, really: God = They. Let that soak in for a second…” I could see the relief in her face, so ever since then I’ve been trying so hard to refer to My God as a “They.” It feels so right and empowering!
I truly believe that My God has a sense of humor. If not, don’t you think that with all the crap we do down here on earth that They wouldn’t just wipe the slate clean and start over? Like, well, that experiment sure didn’t work, back to the drawing board. Maybe this time Eve won’t eat the damn apple! My absolute favorite and subsequently the darkest one I’ve seen was a news article post of a man who fasted for 28 days because he was trying to prove he was “holy”… well, he successfully proved he wasn’t holy, because he died on Day 28 from starving himself. A profile named “God,” with the quintessential profile “God” pic of a brunette, handsome man, with long hair, a beard, and wearing white, flowing clothing, commented: “F***ing Poser!” I freaking died! My mouth dropped wide open, eyes went wide from shock, and then I laughed so hard I couldn’t breathe! Theeeeeeeeeennnn I took a screenshot and sent it to my mom! 😅🤣😂
Anyways, please don’t hate me – I’m so not perfect! I’m very flawed, but I truly from the depths of my soul try to be the best person I can and give to my fellow people where I can! Whether it’s a simple smile, sending up a small prayer for someone I see, holding the door open, lending a hand, etc. I think you can have a dark sense of humor and still be a good person! I married a Marine after all! ❤️ And that man is my soulmate!
For context here, former First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt put it best when she famously said:
“The Marines I have seen around the world have the cleanest bodies, the filthiest minds, the highest morale, and the lowest morals of any group of animals I have ever seen. Thank God for the United States Marine Corps!”
– “Amen, Sister!!!” ~ Tired Mama
I also have to admit that I am quite jaded with religion in general. Growing up, the churches that i was exposed to preached that they were all accepting, but even as a child I knew that wasn’t really true. You could feel it. If someone didn’t wear their finest Sunday best, they would be judged. If someone showed up late for the sermon, they were judged! If someone fell asleep and started snoring during the sermon, they were judged!!! (Lol)
I have a perfect example of this… my Great Grandfather was a Deacon at our family church. Now, my parents didn’t always attend. They were Christian, but (after their own struggles with God) they shipped my sis and I off to Great G’ma and G’pa’s every Saturday to spend the night and attend church on Sunday. Which, WTH, right?! But I have to say, it was magical being able to spend so much time with my Great Grandparents, and I feel so lucky and honored to have gotten to learn from them and have such a strong relationship with them AND develop my strong foundation in faith because of them! But once I got older and figured out it was also because my parents wanted to pawn us off for alone time, it really chapped my a**. Now, as a parent, I’d 100000000% do this and plan to with my mom (the new G’ma)! It’s your turn, Mama (or should I say G’ma?)!! Bye, Kids 👋! Have fun at Sunday School!
Shoot – I got off track here. Anyway, my Great Grandpa was a Deacon at our church. I still don’t know what this fully meant, but I know it was an honor that he took very seriously. Well, another Deacon’s daughter was engaged and wanted to be married in her family church. Their family had been going to this church for generations and was deeply rooted in all aspects of church activities and volunteering opportunities. They were a wonderful family – so generous and warm and welcoming! Well, her fiancé wasn’t religious. He was open to it, but hadn’t fully grasped what it meant to him yet, if anything. The Pastor denied their request to be married in the church because of this!
Excuse me?! What?! How is that “godly” in any way? You mean to tell me that the church is going to turn away a non-believer who was open to figuring out what his relationship with God could be instead of lying about it for a wedding ceremony of basically church royalty?! If a church princess was a thing, the bride to be was it! I know God, Jesus, AND the Holy Spirit were disappointed at this! Everyone did. Well, not everyone. It basically ripped our church in half. Half of us left because this is BS, and the other half stayed and continued to listen to the self-righteous teachings and preachings of the pastor that rejected a beautiful union. We were among those who left. My Grandpa had had it, so he took his family elsewhere to congregate.
Look, I think church CAN be a wonderful thing. It was for me as a child! But as I got older and started realizing that what I thought church was really wasn’t is when I started really paying attention to what was going on and questioning things. I was raised Christian, but mom told me when I was 13 that I could practice any religion I wanted. She just wanted me to have the building blocks first, so I’d have a strong foundation, but ultimately it was my decision. I. Was. Shocked!! All of a sudden, now it’s my choice?! No, this has to be a trick or some test of my faith… I’d better answer correctly! But I talked to her about it and understood that she believes that religion is a relationship – you have to choose the relationship for yourself. Well, at 13, I was NOT prepared to hear that. However, it really gave me a lot of confidence, because it showed me that my mom had the confidence in me to make this monumental decision on my own at such a young age. I will always be thankful to my mother for teaching me the foundation and to follow my heart and then giving me such an amazing gift as the gift of choice. This gift allowed me to start questioning the church and religion in order to figure out what my heart was feeling.
Here’s where I am now: I call myself spiritual. If I had to pick a religion, I’d say I’m closest to Christian, but I basically took the best parts of all the areas that overlap in each religion (that I know of) and try to live my life by those principles. Which all boil down to The Golden Rule: Treat all people with respect, we’re all God’s children, basically be the best person you can be and help others where you can. And, c’mon, with a life vision like that, honestly, how could you go wrong?
I do believe the Bible is flawed, because if you believe that God’s Word, aka The Bible, was transcribed by God through a human, well, humans aren’t perfect, so therefore the Bible (or any version thereof) cannot possibly be perfect, as it physically passed through man. And that’s talking about the original Day One fresh copy! Since then, it has been translated into every different language, and updated, and this and that, over thousands of years. So, yeah, the Bible is flawed. So I, personally, do not take it as 100% literal. However, the Bible does have wonderful teachings. But even so, those teachings are open to interpretation due to being flawed by mankind’s input over thousands of years.
Take the LGBTQ+ community, for example. Every Bible-thumping zealot will recite the verse, “Man shall not lie with Man.” But that isn’t the literal teaching! Way back when, this was transcribed in original Hebrew, which is a very complex language that many other languages have tried to translate with words believed to match, but those words did not grasp the full complexity of this teaching from original Hebrew. You can research this yourself. I’m sure no expert or scholar on the Bible or religions, but what I found was that the original text was warning against incestuous relations of any kind, which I think we can all agree is a condemnation. It was not talking about consensual, loving relationships of nonrelated adults of any kind. My God only sees love.
Now, please don’t message me trying to define what the Bible means by, “Man shall not lie with Man,” because, honestly, I don’t care. Here’s what I always go back to… Did you get to pick the color of your eyes? No. Did you get to pick how tall or short you would be? No. Did you get to pick your natural hair color? No. Is it a conscious decision you make for who you are attracted to? Do you wake up every day and say, I’m going to be attracted to men, or women, or both, or whatever? NO, YOU DON’T! IT JUST IS! JUST LIKE THE COLOR OF YOUR EYES! My God loves us no matter our color, creed, gender, sexual orientation, religion, or lack thereof! They are there for you no matter what! And They made you perfect, just the way you are!
It is an amazing feeling knowing God’s got your back! Like, I think this all the time… how do atheists go through life? Like, this is really all there is and then just nothingness? Is it a huge void, or what happens?? Or reincarnation? Seriously, you might come back as a bug?? And, again, not throwing stones at atheists or reincarnation enthusiasts – those are just as rightful a belief as any of the others. I just have those questions. Because what I believe (and have personally witnessed time and time again) is that God truly has my back. He bails my dumb a** out of so much crap, it’s insane!!!!!! It took me turning my back and walking away from God and religion to truly understand that it is a deep personal relationship that takes work and upkeep just like any other relationship. And it’s ok to be mad at God. It’s ok, because it’s a REAL relationship! And in a real relationship, if you’re mad or don’t understand, then speak up! Be mad! Get upset! Just remember that there’s love there, and where there’s love, understanding, and forgiveness, that trust will follow.
So back to God proving to me time and time again that He (or She, or They, whatever) has my back. I call it, “A God Thing.” Whenever there’s something I can’t explain, but it works out perfectly… that’s A God Thing. A chance encounter, serendipity, etc., THAT’S A God Thing! For instance, I started writing this blog late one night, just jotting my initial thoughts down for a rough draft. When I finished for the night, I literally thought, Wow, it’s going to be hard to find a picture to accompany this blog (because my beliefs aren’t traditional, but they aren’t nothing either… they’re actually quite simple and complex at the same time). Well, the next day my mom sent me the picture at the top of this post, and I went, Holy crap, that’s PERFECT! THAT IS EXACTLY HOW I FEEL AND WHAT I BELIEVE!!! What a perfect accompaniment to my spiritual blog!!! This is a little example of A God Thing! A small one, but they can be small. Shoot, most of them are small, but they add up BIG TIME! It took me years to start noticing them in my life, and I know I probably still don’t notice most, but I really try hard to identify them and give credit where credit is due by saying a thank you prayer! Remember, it’s a REAL relationship, so show your gratitude every chance you get!
If you experience a situation you feel is A God Thing, please pop over to my contact page and share! I’d love to hear and possibly share it on the page, “It’s A God Thing”. Check it out for more stories! And remember that saying thank you is more important than asking God for help – something I constantly have to remind myself of because I still ask for way more than I give thanks for. So give thanks when you realize God stepped in to help you out, because there are a million other times They do and maybe you just didn’t realize it! 🩷💚💙🩵❤️
