Does your religious faith provide the sum total of your ability to deal with death, loss, daily problems, or do you credit your personal resilience?

[Bricealan]

I have a friend that insists that her religious faith is her sole support in times of personal crisis, daily stress, and/or the daily problems that we all face day-in-and-day-out as we go about our lives.

I have no such faith, and I admit to her, that I WISH I had her faith in God or whomever she prays to in order to give me emotional support through sickness and trauma like the recent death of my only sibling.

We all struggle at some point or many points with difficult problems, and I try my best to stay strong, mentally, emotionally and, Yes, physically to deal with lifes problems and trauma, but I have never had a religious/spiritual belief that I found to help me through grief and trauma.

After saying this, I wish that my lady friend had more faith in HERSELF, as a strong person that shoulders many problems, her own, and the problems of others... mine included.

I managed to go through my brother's death, with the help of others, but for the most part had to deal with it on my own, and managed to no fall to pieces in the process. I hope that I will always be able to do that, as in the end, the only person I can really count on, is myself.

Please give me your thoughts and feelings about the subject.

Thanks, Bruce

[sage2021]

I often ask myself "What do people who don't pray 🙏🏼 to God do when they need help or need to pray for someone they need prayers too"?
Yes, you got through taking care of everything for your brother and survived it, but someone with or without faith bury the dead and don't have a nervous breakdown.
I would like to ask you what's stopping you from believing in God and Jesus Christ?
Your lady friend does have faith and she does pray and that's probably one of the reasons why she's not with you. Her husband might be a good Christian man and that's why she remains with him. Wordly things don't matter to a Christian because they aren't wordly people (except for the ones you see on TV).
What I can't wrap my head around is why a person doesn't care that when they die (and we are all going to die) they don't care that they are going to hell. 🤷🏼‍♀️

[Bricealan]

@sage2021 I don't believe, simply because ever since the beginning of civilization, men everywhere have believed in some kind of god or gods. The Romans had their gods, the Greeks had their gods, American Indians had gods, Vikings had Valhalla, Middle Easterners have Mohammed and they believe in some kind of heaven. All of it, none of it has ever made any sense to me, and I cannot have faith in something that I don't believe exists.

[CupcakeTheDestroyer]

Your friend’s faith in her religion is the same as faith in herself. As she believes God will help her through hard times, so she also believes she will survive hard times and come out better on the other side. It’s all the same thing, it’s just a matter of perspective.

[strateguy632]

You offer extremes. Most people combine faith with resilience. Not one alone.

When my gramma died , my faith in heaven made her death bearable. Even when someone told me "now she is eaten by worms". Or as i heard in a film recently "he is worm chow".

[DryGermanGuy]

I like to offer that (semi-) quote about „act as if you had faith, and faith will be given to you.“

[Bricealan]

@DryGermanGuy Sometimes, I feel that is indeed, True!

[NathanDavis]

not religion, but a kind of faith, hope and belief, yes...

[NathanDavis]

it's a big part of it, not the whole

[Anonymous]

My personal resilience

[Bricealan]

I too, try to do that... I want to be a strong person.

[Opinion Owner]

I'm sure you are a very strong person.

[Bricealan]

You are certainly a good person to respond in such a understanding way. Thank you.