how I put the 'real' into religion

Spiritual resource to share: seeking and finding the real thing

I'm blogging occassionally for tmcyouth.com now and wanted to share one of my recent posts from there (with some edits). This is part of a number of responses to a question posed about leaving and not leaving Christian Science:

I was born into the Christian Science and left it when I was about 19 -- when I felt the culture of Christian Scientists was too restrictive and I wasn’t seeing a whole lot of compassion, love, etc. So I left and went exploring.....

I just wanted to share where my journey took me. What I found out by exploring other faiths and talking to gazillions of people of faith and no faith was pretty amazing to me. I found Christian Science – the law of God – operating everywhere!

I found it in other churches who were exploring healing through prayer, in political groups passionately taking a stand against injustice and exploitive practices in developing worlds, in unselfish individuals doing humanitarian work in Central America. I found it at grad school: studying leadership and intercultural communication; applying principles of Love and Principle in community activism – I could go on and on.

I traveled a lot through the US, Central America and Europe during this time. What I learned about Love in Christian Science is that Love is universal and this was what enabled me to be safe, connect with a wide variety of people and feel such joy, even in the midst of severe challenges.

I felt I had found Christian Science on its own terms – operating unconditionally throughout the world. This was very freeing.

I found I could go back to church and see that we are all working things out the best way we know how. I was less judgmental. And I also realized that my concept of church could extend far beyond a single group of people in a certain building.

Churches are a lot like individuals. The more self-absorbed they are (like being overly concerned with what they can get out of church, focused on how they look, being proud, feeling their identity is tied to material things - like a building or a body, or a ritual or a drug, following the letter and not the spirit), the more they dwindle.

But the more selfless and focused on healing and serving and what they can give – either at church or in our individual lives – the more they soar—and bless, heal, and inspire anyone who comes across their path!

It is the selflessness and the focus on healing and serving that makes Christian Science so very real and relevant to me

To share your thoughts on this or to explore this idea further, please feel free to be in contact with me, add your own comments below, email this article to a friend, or add to the healing finds and sites on the web to the right.