One God, Many Ways

We all think that whatever way we follow is the way to the truth and salvation, and we think that everyone else is heading to doom. Growing up only knowing one kind of people and one religion does not prepare you for an exposure to the different religious practices around the world, especially in our "flat" globalized world of today.

Most people of a specific relgious background are raised to condemn the practices of others that are different and sometimes to even hate them. We believe that God listens to us only and that we are saved and heaven is in our pocket.

I once believed in all that- pardon my french- crap. I was expected to hate jews and believe that they are cheap and dirty, that hindus worshipped cows and sikhs worshipped fire. I was not taught about the Holocaust in school and we were told only we are going to heaven, and everyone else were sinners and condemned to hellfire for eternity. So, i followed, like everyone else i knew, all of these beliefs or assumptions if you may. I didn't need to know anything else; afterall, i was going to heaven.

Luckily, my sudden exposure to other practices came in the most positive of ways. Going to a country that has a mix of all sorts of people gave me the opportunity to question myself, and what i was taught. I studied other relgions and their practices, i learnt about what they really believe and practice, not what i was taught by prejudiced teachers in school. I then started to attend services of several different relgions. I expected that they will reject me because i knew my people will reject them in our places or worship, but i got warm welcomes and so much understanding and love.

I was always distracted from the prayers during the services by the people. I watched them as they prayed, their heads either bowed or lifted up high calling out to God. Congregations holding hands and sharing the love of God. I thought to myself: is it possible that God will see these people, praying with so much sincerity, intense faith and humble hearts, and will reject them just because they are not of a certain relgion, just because they follow a certain discipline? If heaven is so great and wonderful, is it possible it was only made for a small group of people who worshipped in a certain way?

If we really believe that God is benevolent and kind and merciful, can we believe that God is a bigot? do we ever consider that it really does not make any sense? Afetrall, God gave us brains so we could use them.

Through other religions I saw things i never saw through my own alone.. I felt that these disciples complete each other, like the world would have no meaning if they did not all exist simultaneously for us to learn from. I questioned all my beliefs, i read more and tried to understand more; i felt like a better follower of my religion because of all the other religions. I was finally a believer, when i was merely a follower all my life.

Now to me the differences mean nothing, and I am sure in my heart that God loves us all the same if we love God, regarless of the way we do it or where we worship. Now i know that if i go to a temple, church, mosque, synagogue, or any house of worship, i will find God there, and God will listen to me. Because i know that we all believe in the same God but we express that in different ways, each one unique and has its own beauty. Afterall, if God wanted us all to be the same and worship God the same way, wouldn't God have created us all similar?

p.s. I use "God" too many times in a sentence because I refuse to use "he", for if God is fair and impartial, God cannot be a man or a woman.