brees--
I am reading all this with interest- but am staying clear of the "deep" discussion-- for many reasons. However, I laughed so at your post because it reminded me of my mother, a devout and exceptionally strong Christian woman, who was incensed by people saying , "I'll pray for you", if they thought someone was wrong or out of line. She found it condescending and arrogant, a way of saying "You;re just wrong and I am a better person".
When she was dying, which took quite a bit of time and a great deal of suffering but offered many hours for us to share and talk, she said, "I wish I knew for sure that Christianity was real."
It surprised me a lot, because she really had never faltered once (that I knew of) in her beliefs for 77 years.
When the minister came by for her weekly visit, Mother asked her, "Can you guarantee me that there is a God?" And the young minister, to her credit, said, "No, Marion, I can't. That's what faith is about."
And my wonderful mother said with a sniff, "You have no idea how much harder it is to believe that now than it was when I was in control."
I watched both my parents die, and many old people in my work with the elderly, and I don't believe that Chris L. has a clue about what it means- at least when it comes to painful and horrible drawn out deaths. He makes it sound like a Hallmark card. |
