Faith

"What ever God you believe in, we all come from the same one"

That is a lyric from Mackelmore's song Same Love. Now, don't go thinking I'm so hip and cool that I listen to rap. I'm a 40 something, mother of 3. I don't have time to listen to rap. But my teenagers do. And sometimes, they will come to me with a song and want me to listen to the lyrics. This is one such song. And I love this lyric.

When I was growing up, I was trotted off to church every Sunday with my family. My dad had attended Seminary. We had bookshelf after bookshelf of bibles and books about the bible in our house. And although he wasn't a full time pastor, he was a certified lay speaker and gave plenty of sermons. My siblings and I spent our youth attending vacation bible school, church camp, youth group, we all went through Confirmation. It was a family affair.

But, and this is a pretty big but, religion was never "crammed down our throats". What was important to our parents was that we have faith. And to them faith was different than religion. As they had learned in their lives, faith can get you though many things in life and it was important to them that we have that. 

I remember as a teenager showing interest in a different church, one my best friend attended.  My parents were very open to the idea. As my dad said, "as far as I'm concerned, we are all worshiping the same God. Find a church that makes you comfortable and helps your faith to grow." He had no interest in forcing us to go to his church, or adopt his doctrines. What he wanted was for us to have faith. How we defined that, chose to show that, to worship; well that was entirely up to us.

When I heard this lyric in Mackelmore's song, it reminded me so much of my dad. My dad, who now at age 80, is lost to Alzheimer's. As far as I'm concerned, he was a brilliant man. He was open and tolerant, accepting and loving. He was years ahead of his time. I love you daddy, and I miss you.