I had a dream that I was in an evangelical photography class the other night. Never mind that I’d probably really enjoy that class, wheat I really liked was that I was able to stretch my “crazy Christian” muscles.
I can comfortably talk to people from all sorts of religious backgrounds. Muslims, Jews, atheists, and Christians of all stripes. Haven’t met a Jain or a Zoroastrian yet, but I’m looking forward to it… Anyway, I do enjoy talking to some of the more out there Christians because it gives me license to indulge in some of my more deeply held beliefs without the fear of being challenged. They also don’t point out some of the inherent contradictions in some of these beliefs. So it’s good to have some of these conversations from time to time.
At one point in the dream, a woman asked something about depression, happiness and faith. Don’t remember the exact question, but I certainly felt that I had the answer for her. I gave her one of those stock answers of how we are responsible for own happiness, God gives us what is needed to be happy, or at least to achieve, and it is up to us to see what has been provided and make the most of it. The class ate it up and was readily agreed to.
In real life (and I’ve been having some of these discussions with various people) I can’t bring myself to be so general. I know that some people have truly awful lives, and some of those people are great. What I tend to do is say that I have been given enough in my life to work with and I’ve been pretty happy with the results, but that really doesn’t sound so inspiring or dogmatic. Wishy-washy is a better description.