Going to Atlanta..my crisis of faith explained, sorta

The following something I posted on my facebook page in my notes. It explains sort of where my head is on this whole crisis of faith thing.

I had to explain my crisis of faith to the Fella last night. I had been trying all day to find the words, and they would get incredibly tangled up. Considering his first language isn't English, my convoluted mumblings and half sentences couldn't have been easy for him.So he comes over for dinner that night, mostly because he knows I was making lamb and rice and okra and tomatoes.

To any Muslims who get all hinky because he's coming to my house, he's been entrusted with my key. I don't have family here anymore and since his family's on the other side of the planet, we watch out for each other. Things are kept above-board.

So he pins me down on my faith issues. I pull out a copy of the Bible (NIV) and the Qu'ran (Abdullah Yusuf Ali's translation) and we st down with it and start picking apart the Islamic approach to Jesus. We find, that the Qu'ran acknowledges the miracles of Jesus..that he healed the sick, raised the dead, and even fed the multitudes (though the stories on the feeding the multitudes are a little different). He is acknowledged as the Messiah, though in Islam Messiah and Son of God do not mean the same thing...

Okay so all of this leads to my understanding my crisis of Faith. I had to explain it to the fella. It came out like this: "Just for metaphor's sake, let's say Heaven is Atlanta. You choose how to get to Atlanta based on where you start. If you live in Montgomery, you take I-85, if you live in Birmingham, you take I-20, and if you live in Chattanooga you take I-75. All three roads will get you to Atlanta in roughly the same amount of time. But let's say you find yourself in Clanton (About halfway between Montgomery and Birmingham). Which way is best? Go to Birmingham and take I-20 or go to Montgomery and Take I-85? Either way will get you to Atlanta as long as you stick to the highway and don't take any exits. The problem I'm having with my Church's response to my questions is that they try to tell me that I-20 doesn't go to Atlanta. But that's not true. I know in my heart that I-20 and I85 both go to Atlanta. I just ned to figure out which is the best route for me. Had I not read the Qu'ran, I-20 would have never entered my mind, I wouldn't know or understand it to any degree for that route to make sense. But the Qu'ran opened up my sort of faith-based Mapquest. And now I have to struggle with the decision of which road is best for me."

So that about sums it up. He seemed to understand it. Maybe you do too. I think it was a big step forward being able to verbalize the sense of directionlessness (if that's even a word) I'm feeling right now. Maybe someday I'll make some progress.