Weekly Newsletter: Free to Believe

Many nations boast of religious freedom. But, even those nations who have a national religion and who punish people for not adhering to that national religion can’t dictate religious beliefs, because nations can’t control our thoughts. They can tell us what we must believe, threaten us, beat us, and imprison us, but they can’t force us to believe.
 
Our freewill choice allows us to take control of what religious beliefs we hold in our hearts, and no one can take that away from us. In fact, not only are we free to believe whatever we choose, we have a responsibility to ourselves to assert we are responsible for our own spiritual path. We can verbally agree with the national religion while at the same time inwardly have nothing to do with it. We can smile, nod, and pretend to be in alignment with the dictates of a religious belief system but still pick and choose what we really believe and what we don’t believe.
 
No jail cell can imprison our minds. We can succumb to pressure, but we do not have to. We can maintain our silence and our spiritual path. Some people struggle with, “What will my parents (or partner) think if they find out what I believe?” As Divine love grows within us, our strength to deal with “what if” questions also increases. In time, we can stand our ground in love and gentleness. Defiance seldom wins friends or influences enemies, but love conquers where defiance fails.