35. Christian Beliefs: Wrap Up

This was a really life-giving series to write. I really appreciated the opportunity to reflect deeply on some things that I used to believe about God and my Christian faith, and process how those beliefs have evolved over the years. The more I wrote, the more ideas kept coming up about more beliefs to write about. I feel like I could go on forever with this if I wanted to, but for now I am going to try to wrap up and move on to some other topics. However, I’ll always come back and add more as I feel it’s necessary and helpful.

I want to reiterate that wherever you are in your faith journey - whether you still believe in the things that I’ve moved away from, whether you’ve moved away from Christian beliefs completely, or whether your beliefs take some other kind of different form - that your journey is your journey, and it matters. I believe we all need to walk our journey for ourselves. And that, I believe, is part of why we’ve seen so many people in younger generations these days walking away from church - whether temporarily or forever. Because we were taught one thing, and as we’ve grown up and experienced life on our own, we simply can’t believe that thing anymore. We still believe in something. Most of us believe in something. But it may not be the thing that we grew up being told to believe, and that is okay. We’re still good people. We still care deeply. In fact, it’s because we care so much that sometimes we need a break to process and reflect and learn on our own. I believe this ability for deep and complex thinking is a gift God gave us.

I wanted to write this series because it’s been hard for me to have evolved in these beliefs over the years and not have had an outlet to share them. Because I’ve seen in my clients’ lives, in my own life, and in my friends’ lives, the destructive nature of some of these beliefs. I’ve seen the way they’ve led to such self-criticism, self-sabotaging, giving far more than we get back, being afraid to be proud of ourselves when we deserve it, being afraid to stand up for ourselves and say when something is hurtful or not okay. I’ve seen the way these beliefs have seemingly given people a free pass to tell others what to do and act like experts on someone else’s life when they have no business doing so. I’ve seen people being robbed of so much joy in their lives because of these destructive beliefs. I’ve seen people being prevented from living fully, freely, and authentically.

If these beliefs aren’t destructive to you, if they’re still helpful to you, then please believe what you need to believe. But please consider that what is helpful to you, may not be helpful for everyone. There is a story behind why everyone is the way they are and why they believe what they believe. We don’t all have to agree, but we do all have to respect each other’s stories. We have to accept that a person’s reality is very real to them even if it seems absurd to you. We have to accept that people are capable of change and growth on their own time. And also, we have to accept that some people will never change, and all we can do is set boundaries on what we will and will not tolerate.

Thank you for reading this series. I hope it’s validated something for you, helped you think about something in a new way, or given you a sense of release from something that wasn’t helpful. It is an honor to get to write and share!