{"id":2308,"date":"2012-02-08T12:21:22","date_gmt":"2012-02-08T12:21:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/projectconversion\/?p=2308"},"modified":"2012-02-08T12:21:22","modified_gmt":"2012-02-08T12:21:22","slug":"is-this-it-how-seemingly-dangerous-questions-strengthen-faith","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/projectconversion\/2012\/02\/is-this-it-how-seemingly-dangerous-questions-strengthen-faith.html","title":{"rendered":"Is This It? How Seemingly Dangerous Questions Strengthen Faith"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I&#8217;m not sure if you&#8217;ve noticed, but I like playing on the edge of things: Riverbanks, mountain ledges, religious convention, the patience of others&#8230;.But one place I enjoy the most is the edge of my own beliefs.<\/p>\n<p>Flirting with the edge is exactly what got Project Conversion and my subsequent 180-degree transformation started in the first place. Once upon a time, I wanted religion in all its shapes, sizes, forms, and colors&#8211;along with its people&#8211;burnt to ashes. Now, well it&#8217;s complicated, but I no longer want to BBQ the faithful.<\/p>\n<p>I like thinking about what makes my convictions stick. Why do I think\/believe that? Has anything changed or come into my life to challenge those beliefs? If something has, and I&#8217;ve shunned it, why did I turn away?<\/p>\n<p>Think of it as a spiritual self-analysis. If practiced correctly, you&#8217;ll discover just what your beliefs are made of.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>One of my favorite daily challenges for myself is asking each morning,<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><strong>&#8220;Is this it? Is there more to life than this? Is there a God(s), or an afterlife, etc.? If so, why do I believe that? Am I really meant for what I think I&#8217;m meant for?&#8221;<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>No I didn&#8217;t stutter. I do this&#8211;I doubt myself&#8211;every, single, day.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Dramatic Evil Spy Chipmunk\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/ZVCxXaRtWig?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">Why would someone of faith knowingly practice doubt every morning? Isn&#8217;t reason the enemy of faith? I mean, wouldn&#8217;t it be like a recovering alcoholic walking into a bar just to see if he can handle himself?<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">I can&#8217;t answer that, because your spiritual condition is unique, but I can say that like a good morning stretch or yoga routine, it&#8217;s extremely helpful.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\"><strong>&#8220;But Andrew, if you already believe that there is life after death, that there is a God(s), if you already believe that Tim Tebow is a prophet of Jesus, why question yourself? Doesn&#8217;t that mean you never really believed in the first place?&#8221;<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">First off, who said I believed in any of that?<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">What this practice does is stretches your faith, gets the blood flowing so that you not only believe it, but <em><span style=\"color: #ff0000\">apply<\/span><\/em> it in your daily life for the betterment of yourself and others. This is especially crucial for all you cradle believers out there, you know, the folks who&#8217;ve held the same beliefs you were raised in. In many cases you don&#8217;t even know why you believe, you simply do. Folks in this category hold the highest risk of taking their faith for granted and thus have a higher risk of growing stagnant (it&#8217;s a general statement. Not all are like this so don&#8217;t start crying if you aren&#8217;t one of them).<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">Of course the applications for this exercise far exceed the realm of faith. We should never hold a belief or position on something &#8220;just because.&#8221; Wrestle with your convictions, perform maintenance on them, test if there are any leaks. Don&#8217;t over react if one day you find that your faith needs an upgrade, newer model, brand replacement, or even stop using it altogether. If it&#8217;s not working for you, if something no longer meshes just right, there&#8217;s probably a reason and I advise caution when pitting tradition again our natural intuition.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">Socrates once said that an unexamined life is not worth living. Are you living life unexamined, unchallenged, unknown or misunderstood?<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">As for the answers to the daily questions&#8230;gotta earn those on your own, folks. Jai Vita!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I&#8217;m not sure if you&#8217;ve noticed, but I like playing on the edge of things: Riverbanks, mountain ledges, religious convention, the patience of others&#8230;.But one place I enjoy the most is the edge of my own beliefs. Flirting with the edge is exactly what got Project Conversion and my subsequent 180-degree transformation started in the&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":437,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[16,359,81,94,693,694,233],"class_list":["post-2308","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-andrew-bowen","tag-belief","tag-doubt","tag-faith","tag-is-there-a-god","tag-is-this-it","tag-project-conversion"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Is This It? 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Flirting with the edge is exactly what got Project Conversion and my subsequent 180-degree transformation started in the&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/projectconversion\/2012\/02\/is-this-it-how-seemingly-dangerous-questions-strengthen-faith.html","og_site_name":"Project Conversion","article_published_time":"2012-02-08T12:21:22+00:00","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/projectconversion\/2012\/02\/is-this-it-how-seemingly-dangerous-questions-strengthen-faith.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/projectconversion\/2012\/02\/is-this-it-how-seemingly-dangerous-questions-strengthen-faith.html","name":"Is This It? 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