On Becoming A Religious Fanatic

This paragraph, even after studying it for some time, can be a bit confusing.  On the one hand, it would seem that faith is a submission to God’s will.  On the other hand, the Church very plainly teaches that faith is a gift from God.  Now by these two concepts, you can almost see a form of predestination.  The submission to God is a gift from God.  So if someone doesn’t submit, could that mean that they simply weren’t given the gift of faith?

I’ll be touching on this subject in a much deeper sense as we move along.  For now, let us just say that we USE our faith to come closer to Christ.

What these paragraphs most strongly point out, is that once we’ve decided, “Yes, I think I do believe in God,” then our only recourse is to completely submit to Him.  In other words, don’t live the lie of half-hearted faith.  Once you begin down the road towards heaven (or up the road, for that matter), you can’t make any stops or decide to only go part of the way.

This is what people mean when they say we are ‘called to sainthood’.  We can’t just do the church thing on Sunday.  Faith must be allowed to take over every corner of our lives.  We must, in fact, become the fanatics that those without religion are so fond of criticizing.

This is hard for some to accept.  To many people, all things must be taken in stride.  Our society has told us that we must not overdo anything (although, many of the people who say this don’t seem to have a problem with overdoing sex, healthy living, and all the other PC attitudes).  But God is the one thing in life that you simply CAN’T overdo.  It’s impossible.

If God exists, then He is all that matters.  If God doesn’t exist, then He doesn’t matter at all.  There’s no fence to walk, you’re either with Him or against Him.

That’s not to say we won’t slip up.  I’m not pointing out that sin would be abnormal for someone who has accepted Christ.  But even in our sin, we must see that our direction has been altered, and we must attempt to make it right again.

Don’t be afraid to accept this kind of faith… to live by this kind of faith.  It only seems scary from the outside.