The Religious Faith I (Privately) Choose

Having been raised in Indonesia, especially as a son whose parents are believers of one of Abrahamic religions, it's very common to find me having my identity card showing that I am also a believer of one particular religion, the majority one to be precise. Logically as in majority's paradigm, I will necessarily be involved in some, if not all, areas of religious practice according to which religious community I (should) belong to. To certain extents, they say it's automatically my obligation, my natural calling to follow the belief my parents have inherited to me.

I've been taught that I don't have space to criticize and to propose my own opinion upon the religious option, not to mention it's not an option at all people say. I would be labeled as infidel (re: Kafir in Islam, or possibly Lost Lamb in Christian) should I betray the social track. There was once I thought it would have been great if I had been born as a western due to the freedom of choice, but soon I realized East or West they're just the same: Religion is always fundamental for everyone, it's absolute and must not be questioned.

Reblog: Question of Your Life

Reblogged  from: http://markmanson.net/question/
Author: Mark Manson

Everybody wants what feels good. Everyone wants to live a carefree, happy and easy life, to fall in love and have amazing sex and relationships, to look perfect and make money and be popular and well-respected and admired and a total baller to the point that people part like the Red Sea when you walk into the room.

Everyone would like that — it’s easy to like that.

If I ask you, “What do you want out of life?” and you say something like, “I want to be happy and have a great family and a job I like,” it’s so ubiquitous that it doesn’t even mean anything.

A more interesting question, a question that perhaps you’ve never considered before, is what pain do you want in your life? What are you willing to struggle for? Because that seems to be a greater determinant of how our lives turn out.

Adventure of Change

Some readers of this post may be able to recall that years ago there was a series of japanese animation namely Digimon Adventure (and of course all series of Digimon). It was an incredible story. In the series, it was told that a number of children should undergo a journey to save the world. In the process of their attempt bringing salvation upon the world, the children learned many things. They should wash away their fear facing dangers. They grew up from mere kids to the DigiDestined, the chosen saviors despite their age.

As the story went on, the children learned about courage, about trusting friends, about love and sincerity, about knowledge and curiosity, about honesty and purity of heart, and also about hope and kindness. They learned how to believe in the future, in miracle, in their own selves. They learned how to always look up and see the light in every darkness. The children protected and looked after each other. They also became best friends for life with their digimon partners and other digimons as well from digital world.