How do your beliefs help you become your best you?

One day years ago as I was about to leave a grocery market with my cart load of (monthly) groceries, I paused, suddenly struck by a sense that a young man near the exit, dressed in what looked like overalls a mechanic would wear, needed to buy something but couldn't (afford to?). Why I thought that, I don't know. I didn't want to embarrass him by asking him if he would accept money, but I quietly dared to ask him. He looked down at me and slowly nodded. I'm embarrassed to say that I only gave him $5.00. As soon as I handed it to this thin young man he thanked me and hurriedly headed for the grocery aisles. To this day, I don't know what prompted me to see his need, I only wish I'd given him more than $5.00. I'm Christian.
 

Capt Lighting,

IMO, everyone receives the grace of god, lol, it’s just that some people don’t realize it.

Well, I don't believe in God, so I just take the saying as "I was lucky it wasn't me".

Let me relate a true, but very irreverent tale that happened in work one day. Over one summer, we had a student working in the office who was a real "Jesus freak". He wrote verse and prayers on his computer, read the Bible at lunch time, and offered to pray for us when we swore. Eventually this wore a bit thin and he became a nuisance.

One morning, he came into the office looking a bit miserable. When I asked what was wrong, he said that his girlfriend had broken off their engagement. I sympathised and asked if that had shaken his faith. He said it had at first, but then
he realised that God must have had a reason for this.

At this point, a colleague turned round and said, "Yes, Bob, he just ****ing well hates you". He didn't speake to us again after that.
 

Keesha said:
How Do Your Beliefs Help You to Become Your Best You?
. One of my favorite scriptures is Galatians 5:22-23. It comes to mind often as I maneuver life. It's a healthy checklist, a meaningful reminder..."But the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control."

 
One day years ago as I was about to leave a grocery market with my cart load of (monthly) groceries, I paused, suddenly struck by a sense that a young man near the exit, dressed in what looked like overalls a mechanic would wear, needed to buy something but couldn't (afford to?). Why I thought that, I don't know. I didn't want to embarrass him by asking him if he would accept money, but I quietly dared to ask him. He looked down at me and slowly nodded. I'm embarrassed to say that I only gave him $5.00. As soon as I handed it to this thin young man he thanked me and hurriedly headed for the grocery aisles. To this day, I don't know what prompted me to see his need, I only wish I'd given him more than $5.00. I'm Christian.

That's lovely, Elsie. You must be a very sensitive person to pick up the fact that the young man needed money. So many people walk around in their own little bubble, not really taking much notice of others.
 
Capt Lighting,

We may be opposites, lol. I don’t believe in luck. My mother is a so called ā€œJesus freakā€, and I find her so hypocritical. The young man you speak of was probably influenced by parents and some unconventional religion-sad. My son doesn’t believe in god either so non belief is not a deal breaker for me. I don’t try and convince anyone to believe.

Anyway, I will relate a story as well (May have told it before. I’m so chatty I can’t keep track of what I say, lol.). Last year one weekend, I wasn’t feeling well. Felt off on Friday. Saturday felt a bit worst, so told my husband I needed to go to the instant care. He said no. You’re fine, we have lots to do, it will take forever, they will send you to the ER. Ok.

All morning my guardian angel nagged at me (it’s a never ending heavy feeling that I should do something.) In your case, it might have been a ā€œgutā€ feeling. (Believers have guardian angels, non-believers have gut feelings, IMO.). Nag, nag, nag. Finally, I tell my husband I still don’t feel well generally and I have to go see the doc.

The doctor did an EKG, thought I was having a heart attack. ā€œSee this line is flatā€, hmm ok. I thought she was wrong. (She was.). She wanted me to go to the ER. Nope, not going. She said she would call my doctor and talk to her because if I didn’t go to the ER, I would die. The nurses couldn’t draw blood, so went to the hospital lab, got blood draw.

Still got the nagging guardian angel, now telling me to go to the ER. Still staying home, waiting for the lab result. On-call doctor calls and tells me to go to the ER. OMG, am I having a heart attack? Have I been stupid about this? No, he thinks it’s a lung embolism. Sigh. Fine, I say, I will go tomorrow. My guardian angel is screaming at me. Go now.


This heavy urge to go, go now, becomes a major compulsion to get moving. But it’s late. My husband doesn’t want to take me. I don’t want to go. I feel odd, not well, but can’t pin point exactly what the problem is and I am breathing fine. The on-call doctor says, ā€œYou will die if you don’t go.ā€ Hmm, lord love a duck, I go. The word hurry pops into my head.

Ugh. Saturday night in the ER. Wait your turn, despite two doctors calling ahead to get me in right away. There are no available ER rooms, but I’ll get the first available. Finally a room, wait for the retesting to be done. Then the drugs are hung. Turns out I was so depleted of potassium that my heart was shutting down, and other complications. Had a couple of IV bags of the stuff. Was there forever. Good thing you came in she says, you would have died.

Had to take two potassium’s pills a day for couple weeks, and now have to take it once a day. Saw my primary care doc the next day, my cardiologist a week later. Five doctors agreed if I hadn’t gone to the instant care walk in clinic, and then the ER, I would have died that night.

Guardian angel vs. ā€œgutā€ feelings-are they the same? Don’t know. Lol, there is an old saying that you don’t have to believe in God cause God believes in you. But I have a guardian angel, my guardian angel has nagged me about other family members, and he’s never been wrong. Hopefully, you have ā€œgutā€ feelings.
 
Aneeda...it's obviously not time for you to go yet. Your so-called Guardian angel is desperately trying to keep you alive. Must be something important you have to do before you go.
 
One of the central tenets of Buddhist ideology is that the source of all suffering in this world is attachment. I embraced that truth, in my teens, and I am a far better person for it, far happier. I also ascribe to the Zen doctrine of no-mind, and that has helped me, greatly, to deal with this absurd existence.
 
I have another go-to scripture I'll add to my post #29...

Philippians 4:8 "Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if there be any virtue, if there be any praise—think about such things".

That rules out the nightly news. Since I stopped watching all that hatred, I've become a more positive person and less scared.
 
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I don’t know Rosemarie. I had two other near death experiences involving hospitalizations and the nagging.

I think it involves my son, Joey. I am certainly ready to go. As a chronic pain patient, I’d like to be pain free. I think I am held here for Joey. Or I hold myself here for Joey. I don’t know.

But the persistence of the feeling has aided in keeping my husband alive as well. I think because my husband’s well being effects my well being. Once last year with his small bowel obstruction. Then a persistent feeling that I needed to read his hospital CT scans from that time period. I don’t usual read his scans.

I can’t get rid of the feeling until I comply. Finally a few weeks later, I pull them up on the computer and read them. The radiologist wrote he couldn’t tell if my husband had fluid in his lung or lung cancer. What? He wrote my husband should get a repeat scan in a month. His primary admitted he hadn’t read the scan when I contacted him, as the bowel was better.

His primary care doctor thought it was fluid, but ordered a new scan (the month had passed) at my insistence. As soon as the scan was done, the feeling left. My husband was diagnosed with lung cancer. We saw the specialist, had more testing, and the docs can’t determine if the cancer is active, resolved, or encapsulated. My husbands weight prevents a biopsy.

We get a pet scan every three months for a year, the second year every 6 months, and then once a year. If any changes occur in the cancer, then the plan changes.
 
I’m not afraid of death but am somewhat afraid of where and how I’m going to die. Even that idea I need to let go of because it interferes with living in the present moment. Philosophy has a huge influence in my life. I hadn’t quite understood that until now.

To paraphrase Woody Allen: I'm not afraid of death. I just wish I didn't have to be there, when it happens.
 
My mother was 93 and dying of pancreatic cancer. She smiled and said, "I just want to be in Jesus' arms." She had no fear. Same with my husband when he died at age 46 (heart attack but he knew it was coming and said he was looking forward to eternal life). Believing in a physical death only, and eternal life is what they believed in.
 
I know it's only a saying, but I don't agree with this, "There but for the grace of god". Why should one person be the recipient of this 'grace' , but not another? My mother used to say things like "That's just god's way". NO, life is often a series of random and unpredictable events. God has nothing to do with it. It's how we respond to those events that matters.

How do I respond? Well, I'm trying very hard not to get 'wound up' by events that don't affect me or my family.

Selfish? maybe, but in the words of B.B. King....

C'mon everybody let's have some fun,
You only live once and when you're dead, you're done
So, let the good times roll....
Is there an answer to the question somewhere here?:shrug:
 


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