Similar Stories?

So this might endd up beeing a long post but I will try to keep it short lol.

So currently im 28 years old and graduated high school in 2002. I am an only chiled and raised by a single mother since I was 7. Well I was not raised in a religious household so I never grew up going to church. Well when I was in highscho ol in eleventh grade we had a day where the 9th graders had to take a test so in my class a lot of students where gone so the teacher didnt make us do much. So I got talking to this one kid and he was talking about going to church with a bunch of people my own age. So I dont know what made me say yes but I decided to check it out.

So the first day I go to church it was actually at a hotel in one of the event rooms which was cool because I always thought of going to church as going to an actually church building. Well I had fun the first time I went and I guess the reason I went back a second time is the people seemed really freindly and there were a lot of people my own age who seemed cool. Well next thing you know I am going to bible study and eventually becoming baptized.

what were to follow were some of the best times of my life without smoking weed but would have been better if I was smoking weed lol. Anyways our chruch was an international church with services in a lot of of cities around the world. I live in Los Angeles and the chruch was broken uo into different regions and I would say that there were over 100 people in my region which was west La. So every Sunday we would have church and its location and times would vary and sometimes we would even be at a park. Then in the middle of the week the teens would get together and have a small service and play basketball. We would have teen leaders which were adults who would be responsible for picking up the kids and bringing them to the event. We did so many fun things. One day like in 2001 the teen leaders took all the kids to a pc place where I played counterstrike for the first time. It became a regular thing and every week I would take the 40 bucks I got from a small job and would use it to play counterstrike when we went. Or staying up all night until 7 in the morning to play halo. I was a shy guy back then if I hadnt gone to church I would have never had experiences like that as mosg the people I knew from high school we never hung out afterwards.

But thats the problem is that Im not really religious anymore and looking back on my experience I realized the main reason for going to church for me was that I enjoyed hanging out with cool friends and not so much that fully believed in the bible. Although I still respect people who believe in religion.

Anyways cool thing is that I have some of my old friends on fb but theres only one of them that I still hangout with in person and he iust like me stopped going to church and we kept in touch ever since. Well one day he asks if he can come over to chill so I said sure and then he says if were to bring some stuff would you smoke it? so I said sure and this turned out to be my first time smoking. I would have never though he would end up smoking weed. well he lives not too far away so we usually meetup once a week with some other friends and blaze. I just find it interesting that it was because of me going to church that I ended up blazing because otherwise I would hVe never met my friend. Anyone else have similar stories? As far as your experience as going to church as a teen. Did you do it because you believed ir because of the friends you made?

Thanks for sharing that.

It's interesting how life has a way of moving you in one direction when you thought you were going in another. You went to church for your own reasons, and got from it what you needed. That is exactly the way it's supposed to be. It has nothing to do with believing in a book, or following certain rules. For you, it was about community, and for many, that is all they ever need.

Once you no longer feel the need for what you needed the church for, you let go of it, as you would any temporary stepping stone, and you naturally move into a different phase of your life. You don't lose the spirit, in fact, when you get together with your friends, you are basically creating your own individual 'church' in which ever house you're in, so when you open up to each other, reveal your truth, talk about what matters, you are doing so just as you might were you in some other place designed for people to do so.

Organised religion is just a way of bringing a lot of people together under one banner. You're doing it yourself. That's just as powerful.

Thanks for the reply it is a good point. Even though I dont believe anymore I dont feel like my time going to church was a waste because like you said I got what I needed from it.

That was a really cool story. Thanks for sharing. My whole experience with dogma (which was substantial enough in my early childhood) did not really lead to any large effects on how I believe and see the world. I see my experience with religion was a way to connect with my grandmother who died when I was 8. I don't remember her very much aside from the feeling of benevolence, love, and kindness akin to rapture. She was the pure embodiment of an angle. She is watching over me, protecting me from that which serves to destroy me.

Edited by A AnoesisOrange, 08 July 2012 - 06:25 PM.

She is watching over me, protecting me from that which serves to destroy me.

myself lol

That was a really cool story. Thanks for sharing. My whole experience with dogma (which was substantial enough in my early childhood) did not really lead to any large effects on how I believe and see the world. I see my experience with religion was a way to connect with my grandmother who died when I was 8. I don't remember her very much aside from the feeling of benevolence, love, and kindness akin to rapture. She was the pure embodiment of an angle. She is watching over me, protecting me from that which serves to destroy me.

Same here my dad died when I was 7 or 8. I would say that a lot of my views on life and the world would be opposite than christian views.