Future plans...

Hey everybody
Just a quick note to say that I have a very important meeting this morning to discuss the future plans of my recovery. I should know today exactly how this will impact my job in the next few months and how, when and where I'll be in a clinic.

I am slightly nervous about it all but confident that it is steps in the right direction.

'till later
Christiaan

"Facing religion"

Monday, 11 February 2008
Current Recovery - "Facing religion"

I have decided that 2008 is the year that I finally decide who I am, what I am and where I’m heading with my life. Of course, the first item in my life that drastically needs to change is my addiction. There is no doubt that I have an addictive personality that has seen me develop unhealthy habits towards everything from sex to gambling to drugs. In the past I have managed to kick some of these habits only to start something else a few months or years afterwards. Normally these new habits are then much more dangerous and damaging than the original. So I am on a real mission this year to get behind whatever problems there might be in my life and sort them out.

One of the biggest problems in my life that seem to pop up everytime anybody talks to me about anything is religion. I have never discussed religion on my blog, for good reason. It is by far the biggest instigator of heated debates and my experiences have taught me that whatever the point of view, people are very reluctant to listen to another.

As I mentioned yesterday the directors at the office have decided to try and help me with my addiction. I cannot go into any detail as yet but one of the conditions has to do with my religion. So the question came up where and when my religious life took a bad turn. I thought I’d share it with you to maybe get the point of view of different people out there.

In my final year of Sunday school I sat talking to our pastor and I asked a question that had been bugging me for ages. I could already feel my reluctance to everything being taught around me and I needed to get some answers to calm my enquiring mind. “What makes you or me, as Christians, so sure that we are the right religion and that all the other religions are wrong? We are taught that this or that religion is wrong and the people belonging to that faith may not end up in heaven. What makes us so sure that we aren’t the wrong one? Surely the people in those religions have as much faith and believe just as much in their bible or their god as we do. And finally how can we base our religion and quote phrases from and judge or praise people based on a book written by people and edited and changed by people. Surely those other religions also have a book similar to the bible on which they may be basing their faith. What makes our bible correct and theirs not?”

It is a mouth full, I know. I am not trying to be negative or sound like an atheist or something. I am merely asking the question I asked that day. The answer I got was terrible and I’ll share it with you in another post. I have posted this entry because my faith and religion at this point is as much part of my heroin recovery as actually stopping heroin. Those that feel they can say something which can shed some light on the questions I asked are welcome to comment. I am an open minded person and will listen to the point of view. I will however not engage in any religious debates, as it is not the point of this post.