(January 21, 2011 at 10:52 am)Watson Wrote: Without faith; I found myself arrogant, unwilling to communicate with others, and lacking confidence. In hindsight, I look back and find that I was not a good person. I did things and said things that I would not do now, and find that I was morally reprehensible in my actions. Lacking confidence, I was spineless and lashed out at a lot of people in my life who cared about me. I did not trust anyone. I went through life blind to a lot of different things in this world.
After finding my faith; I have found my confidence again, along with a deeper meaning and serendpitiy that was there all along. I am more conscious and aware of what I do now, and although that means I often face pain and fear greater than what I faced before, I say bring it on. I am stronger and more aware for dealing with it than I was before. Rediscovering my faith was possibly one of the best things to happen to me in my 17 short years here in this life. It has brought me back into a state of mind I had forgotten existed. If I am unhealthy and I'm sick inside...why do I feel better than I've ever felt before?
You could say the things I see now are coincidence, but I would counter that things have worked out too well to be mere coincidence. Faith reveals to a person the things that they miss without it. The serendipitous moments, the thoughts drifting in and out, the heightened state of cosciousness...it's all part of the process. And those without faith miss out on it sorely. Very sorely.
Sounds like you were a bit of a dick and grew out of it.
I too was a bit of a dick when young and beautiful but I grew out of it,(and the beautiful bit too, mores the pity)
You can fix ignorance, you can't fix stupid.
Tinkety Tonk and down with the Nazis.