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Okay, so I had to ask 'Nine-chan...
Aug. 23rd, 2003 10:37 pmThe interview:
Here are the rules:
1 - Leave a comment saying you want to be interviewed.
2 - I will respond and ask you five questions.
3 - You'll update your journal with my five questions, and your five answers.
4 - You'll include this explanation.
5 - You'll ask other people five questions when they want to be interviewed.
And, of course, I ask the friend who will ask me the most difficult questions! *grins and hugs 'Nine-chan* I don't mind. You made me think.
1. Explain to me how you came to your particular views and faith in God.
Hrrrm...It's hard to explain, as it's been a very gradual process. I was raised in the Christian church, and both of my parents are Christians. I think I've probably believed since I was very small that God will always be there for me, and He (or She) would always be listening when I need someone to listen to me. My parents lived the example in many ways--they're both very nifty people, very non-judgemental. They brought me up to care about and love other people no matter what they believed, which I think is a very Christian thing to do.
When I was in high school, I went through what you might call "a crisis of belief." I had a lot of friends who weren't Christians and who thought Christianity was stupid. This made me wonder why I really believed the way I did--was it because I believed it, or because my parents had taught me to believe? And what did I really believe?
It took some soul-searching and reading to figure this one out. I talked to a lot of Christians that I knew, trying to find out why they believed what they did. I talked to people of other religions (mostly Wiccan, since those were the people I knew) to find out what they thought. The thing that angered me and frustrated me the worst was when they would just toss my beliefs aside (such as they were) and not even consider what I thought. I hate it when people are judgemental, no matter what religion they are.
I also read my Bible more, trying to figure out what was really behind Christianity. Was it right? The more I read, the more convinced I became that Christianity was the right way for me to go. Jesus was an amazing person. He loved people and accepted them for who they were. He was a radical, trying to show people the love behind the legalism that ruled their lives. Jesus was a reformer. I really don't think (at least right now) that he set out to create a new religion. He set out to reform Judaism and show people that there was a better way to live. Jesus really had the right idea. I mean, He said that the greatest commandments (and the ones that summed all the others up) were to Love God first, and then Love your Neighbor as Yourself. I think those are good rules to live by.
I also do believe in miracles, including Jesus' resurrection. I see miracles happening every day--for heaven's sake, the fact that we're even alive is a miracle.
Sorry, I digress. The next step in the process was one of the most fantastic teachers I've ever had: Chuck Sturms. He taught at Northwest Christian College, and he may be teaching there still. He encouraged people to question their faith and their beliefs, to always seek the truth, and to make sure that they weren't just believing because someone told them they should.
To be perfectly honest, I think I'm still forming my views on God. I think I will be for the rest of my life. I keep learning more about Him/Her (I believe that God has the best aspects of both), and the more I learn, the more I like. I'm still very much a Christian, and I know I will be because it's the faith that makes the most sense to me from what I've experienced. Does this answer the question, or am I just babbling? Ask more if you want more information. ^_^
2. Do you want to have children? How many? What would you want to name them and why?
This one's a bit easier. I don't want to have children in the near future, but I'm keeping my options open at this point. I think I'd like to have one, maybe two at the maximum. It's hard to name hypothetical children, but I've always liked the name Elizabeth, for Elizabeth I, kick-butt Queen of England. Besides that, Elizabeth offers a child lots of options for nicknames--Eliza, Liz, Beth, Betty, and many variations thereof. For a boy, I think I'd like to name him something historical, as well, but it's hard to think of a name without lots of dreadful nicknames.
3. You are writing a story. You have the whole thing worked out in your mind: beginning middle and end. But as you write it, things begin to happen in reality that are part of your plot. Do you continue the story, or you stop and put it away, or do you delete the whole thing? Or do you do something else entirely? Why?
First of all, I would experiment to see if the story I was writing was really what was affecting reality. Then I would try to find out how this happened...but I would probably finish the story in any case. My stories tend to have happy endings that wind up with the world being a better place. ^_^;; Besides that, if the story is all worked out in my head...it'll have to come out into the open eventually, won't it?
4. Have you ever had a vision, seen a ghost or spirit, or had some other brush with the supernatural/metaphysical world? What was it like for you? Do you wish it would happen more often?
I can't remember anything of the type, unless you count dreams, and even my memories of those are rather fuzzy. I've had strange "hunches" about things and people, and there have been times when I've felt scared for no reason, but I expect that's normal for most people. In a way, I wish I could meet someone/something from somewhere else so I could ask them what it's like...but in another way, I'm worried that I'd be so freaked out that I wouldn't know what to say.
5. Would you rather be buried or cremated? Why?
Cremated. Definitely. I would prefer that any usable organs would be removed first, though. The reason behind my desire for cremation is kinda silly, but...I want to have a funeral pyre. I don't want to be cremated in one of those funeral oven thingies (too scary...too much like stories about the Holocaust), but I wouldn't mind a funeral pyre, like the ancients had. Wouldn't it be cool to go out on a Viking boat set afire, or be cremated by the ocean so that my ashes blew out to sea? Kind of morbid, but I think that's the way I'd like to go--in a burst of flame.
Okay, those are my answers. Anybody else want to be interviewed? ^_^
Here are the rules:
1 - Leave a comment saying you want to be interviewed.
2 - I will respond and ask you five questions.
3 - You'll update your journal with my five questions, and your five answers.
4 - You'll include this explanation.
5 - You'll ask other people five questions when they want to be interviewed.
And, of course, I ask the friend who will ask me the most difficult questions! *grins and hugs 'Nine-chan* I don't mind. You made me think.
1. Explain to me how you came to your particular views and faith in God.
Hrrrm...It's hard to explain, as it's been a very gradual process. I was raised in the Christian church, and both of my parents are Christians. I think I've probably believed since I was very small that God will always be there for me, and He (or She) would always be listening when I need someone to listen to me. My parents lived the example in many ways--they're both very nifty people, very non-judgemental. They brought me up to care about and love other people no matter what they believed, which I think is a very Christian thing to do.
When I was in high school, I went through what you might call "a crisis of belief." I had a lot of friends who weren't Christians and who thought Christianity was stupid. This made me wonder why I really believed the way I did--was it because I believed it, or because my parents had taught me to believe? And what did I really believe?
It took some soul-searching and reading to figure this one out. I talked to a lot of Christians that I knew, trying to find out why they believed what they did. I talked to people of other religions (mostly Wiccan, since those were the people I knew) to find out what they thought. The thing that angered me and frustrated me the worst was when they would just toss my beliefs aside (such as they were) and not even consider what I thought. I hate it when people are judgemental, no matter what religion they are.
I also read my Bible more, trying to figure out what was really behind Christianity. Was it right? The more I read, the more convinced I became that Christianity was the right way for me to go. Jesus was an amazing person. He loved people and accepted them for who they were. He was a radical, trying to show people the love behind the legalism that ruled their lives. Jesus was a reformer. I really don't think (at least right now) that he set out to create a new religion. He set out to reform Judaism and show people that there was a better way to live. Jesus really had the right idea. I mean, He said that the greatest commandments (and the ones that summed all the others up) were to Love God first, and then Love your Neighbor as Yourself. I think those are good rules to live by.
I also do believe in miracles, including Jesus' resurrection. I see miracles happening every day--for heaven's sake, the fact that we're even alive is a miracle.
Sorry, I digress. The next step in the process was one of the most fantastic teachers I've ever had: Chuck Sturms. He taught at Northwest Christian College, and he may be teaching there still. He encouraged people to question their faith and their beliefs, to always seek the truth, and to make sure that they weren't just believing because someone told them they should.
To be perfectly honest, I think I'm still forming my views on God. I think I will be for the rest of my life. I keep learning more about Him/Her (I believe that God has the best aspects of both), and the more I learn, the more I like. I'm still very much a Christian, and I know I will be because it's the faith that makes the most sense to me from what I've experienced. Does this answer the question, or am I just babbling? Ask more if you want more information. ^_^
2. Do you want to have children? How many? What would you want to name them and why?
This one's a bit easier. I don't want to have children in the near future, but I'm keeping my options open at this point. I think I'd like to have one, maybe two at the maximum. It's hard to name hypothetical children, but I've always liked the name Elizabeth, for Elizabeth I, kick-butt Queen of England. Besides that, Elizabeth offers a child lots of options for nicknames--Eliza, Liz, Beth, Betty, and many variations thereof. For a boy, I think I'd like to name him something historical, as well, but it's hard to think of a name without lots of dreadful nicknames.
3. You are writing a story. You have the whole thing worked out in your mind: beginning middle and end. But as you write it, things begin to happen in reality that are part of your plot. Do you continue the story, or you stop and put it away, or do you delete the whole thing? Or do you do something else entirely? Why?
First of all, I would experiment to see if the story I was writing was really what was affecting reality. Then I would try to find out how this happened...but I would probably finish the story in any case. My stories tend to have happy endings that wind up with the world being a better place. ^_^;; Besides that, if the story is all worked out in my head...it'll have to come out into the open eventually, won't it?
4. Have you ever had a vision, seen a ghost or spirit, or had some other brush with the supernatural/metaphysical world? What was it like for you? Do you wish it would happen more often?
I can't remember anything of the type, unless you count dreams, and even my memories of those are rather fuzzy. I've had strange "hunches" about things and people, and there have been times when I've felt scared for no reason, but I expect that's normal for most people. In a way, I wish I could meet someone/something from somewhere else so I could ask them what it's like...but in another way, I'm worried that I'd be so freaked out that I wouldn't know what to say.
5. Would you rather be buried or cremated? Why?
Cremated. Definitely. I would prefer that any usable organs would be removed first, though. The reason behind my desire for cremation is kinda silly, but...I want to have a funeral pyre. I don't want to be cremated in one of those funeral oven thingies (too scary...too much like stories about the Holocaust), but I wouldn't mind a funeral pyre, like the ancients had. Wouldn't it be cool to go out on a Viking boat set afire, or be cremated by the ocean so that my ashes blew out to sea? Kind of morbid, but I think that's the way I'd like to go--in a burst of flame.
Okay, those are my answers. Anybody else want to be interviewed? ^_^
