Bouncing on the Knee

Hebrews 11:1 says, "Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, and the evidence of things not seen". A very wise statement, in part - because faith is also the substance of what you were taught to believe, and belief is the sum of your experiences within the limits of that education. We base our reactions to life's events against the template we form by that education. We are in a sense a product of our spiritual environment. The books we read, the sermons we hear, the people we surround ourselves with are our support center to reinforce our conviction for our way of thinking. The reality of it is, our humanity prevails. Regardless of covering ourselves with a cloak of holiness and right speaking or posturing, we all basically think alike and our thoughts for the most part do not dwell on our spiritual life but our earthly needs. We all dwell on our appearance, how the world sees us, how we look or dress. We all (whether you care to admit it) are sexual creatures, an innate built-in function of our earth suits. We try and make it all formal with ritual and rite, marriage and rules- but it's ultimately all about sex. Humans have want for security and being cared for, to be loved, to be touched, to have friends and companions to lean on. We thrive on family closeness. It represents a security blanket we've known since we were helpless newborns. We're creative thinkers, able to adapt to life's situations or build grand structures. Ironic as it is, most Christian perspective teaches that our ability to think for ourself gets us in the alot of trouble with the Almighty. We challenge His ideals by doing so (or so we're told, especially when our thoughts disagree with anothers belief system) and that my friend is sin! Funny - the first sin wasn't sex, wasn't murder, or foul speech, or anything grand like that - it was thinking out of the box. Eve listened to anothers voice and made a conscious decision to disobey a command, took a bite from the tree of knowledge, and delighted or fearful of her newfound knowledge shared it with Adam. For this mistake mankind was ultimately forced... to live with our decisions. WOW. If we weren't supposed to think for ourselves, why were we given the ability to do so? We're made in His image and likeness, yet our ability to think, and create, to reproduce, to destroy, to be jealous, to be angry, sad, happy, and proud - are all off limits? So being like God *because we're made that way* is evil? Because of this mentality the church population became a bunch of useless lemmings - kneeling, praying, singing, waving hands, crying and prostrating themselves before God to gain His favor - rather than using the brain and talent God gave them to use in the first place. For this we're referred to as children and sheep because we can't do a thing on our own, we can't find our way, we're scared of the dark and if we question anything we're told we will get a whippin'... We're taught to fear going astray. We fear being that unfruitful branch that God plucks off the vine and tosses in the fire. For this we are taught to fear God not love Him, we fear death, the boogie man, and other formidable foes hiding in shadows to deal us temptation and wickedness, harm and hatred. That way we can blame how we were created *our humanity* on anything but ourselves. And we don't have to be responsible for ourselves if we're being led like sheep, or happily giggling bouncing on the knee of our heavenly Father. Now, faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen - why can't it be that simple?