Reflection Of My Faith

The day was February 11, 2007. I had just woken up. I went to my closet to get ready for the day, threw on some clothes and went into the kitchen. The day was dark, the atmosphere had an unusual dreariness to it. My mom was in the kitchen making breakfast for my brother, cousin and I. That is when the phone rang. Every day, every hour that phone rings. I never thought my mom ever gets off of it. My mom picks up the phone and it was like a movie, someone calls and receives horrible news and drops the phone from shock. That was this scenario. My mom could not get off the phone any quicker. She calls for everyone to hurry up and get in the car, dressed or in pajamas. I knew something was terribly wrong, did my father die from a plane crash, or did my grandma fall?

When I was 12 my grandfather died of cancer. I knew he was sick and was dying but we never discussed it. I was able to see my grandfather before he died and was able to attend his funeral. Two years later my grandmother died suddenly and we were able to attend his funeral. I vaguely remember attending a couple other funerals but I was really too young to understand what exactly was going on.

I had lacrosse practice on the hottest day of summer. The best day was going to jump off a cliff and die. Practice was done and I was hungry for food. I got in my mom’s car and asked my mom to go somewhere and get some food. We went to Taco Bell. I finished and was ready to go home and get a shower. We were going down the road and suddenly my mom got a phone call from my aunt. As soon as my mom started to talk to my aunt she started to cry and break down. She

On a Sunday morning of March 15 1998, we woke up super early to the phone ringing on the other side was my dad. My grandmother answered the phone her face paled as she heard the words “mom I shot myself.” After talking to him for a bit my grandmother rushed out of her room to get my uncle up and they rushed to the house to see him up walking around with a hole in his stomach. Ambulance came to get him then rushed him to meet life force. He flat lined once on the helicopter. They were able to bring him back and stabilized him, and kept him stabled till they got to the hospital. They rushed him immediately into the OR, it was around 15 to 20 minutes into surgery that he had passed away, they were unable to bring him back due to the major loss of blood. My mom soon remarried and I gained two annoying step brothers and a step dad. One step brother didn’t bother me to bad, the other one poked and picked on me trying to pick fights. My step dad had episodes where he was violent and threw things at me and my mom. I withdrew more and more until a few of my friends literally grabbed me by my arm and told me to wake up that they were not going to let me push them away

The day that my Grandpa passed away started out like any other day. My mom and I went to visit him daily, just because we wanted to spend time with him. It was August 11th so, summer was coming to an end. My mom, Grandma and I were sitting and waiting for him, in his hospital room, to get back from the tests that he had that day. Everything seemed fine. He looked great. My mom and I were only able to talk to him for a few minutes, sadly, before they had to take him away again for more tests. We said our good-byes, not knowing that they would be our last, and we left. When we were at the stop light at 75th and Washington, we got a call.

One late summer night when I was 11, my father came in my room and told me he would be leaving for a while. That entire summer I was confused on where he was and what he was doing, all I could find where small clues about my father’s whereabouts ; such as my step-mom crying as she found secret bank accounts, hidden phones, and other peculiar pieces of information. There were whispers between the adults in the family but being 11 I assumed it did not concern me. The end of that summer, my father came home and told the rest family that he was in a drug and alcohol rehabilitation facility. I was shocked, before he remarried my father was all I had left since my mother died when I was a toddler, but he was now clean and was ready to mend the family.

The next day my whole family went out to dinner we talked about how he's in a better place now. My father wasn’t emotional until reality set in and a single tear ran down his face. That was the one and only time I saw my dad cry om the way back I started crying my sister tried to hug me and I wouldn’t let her. Exactly a month after that we had the viewing I was sitting laughing playing with the toys I had brought till this random guy came up to me and said, ' my hat fell under the bleachers

Have you ever lost someone that you really admired? I did, my Uncle died from a heart failure, he had a heart attack. I was four years of age when he died, so I didn’t really understand what happened but now I do. My family and I traveled all the way from California to Mexicali (part of Mexico) to help my aunt, my Uncle’s wife, with the funeral money. It was a very rough time.

My parents were going back and forth from the hospital. I was starting to think that my grandma had actually already died, and they didn’t want to tell me for some reason.

Though some may say, myself included, that the death of a family member is one of the hardest, toughest, traumatic things to deal with, it also comes with a good side. That good side is that it brings people together to not only mourn over a loss, but to celebrate the life of someone great. One can either sink from a situation like this, or one can rise. I feel like my family and I chose to rise from this. We were all changed in so many ways. My grandma, Veronica, was especially changed the most. She and my granddad did absolutely everything together. They

Throughout the bible, and reading it once more by Marcus Borg, a common idea as it relates to a religious experience, is that the Bible is a human product. Throughout chapter two, Borg continuously describes the Bible as being a product of humans. He explains on page 22 that he sees scripture through the lens of the Bible being a human product, meaning that it is the “product of two ancient communities” (22). He believed that what the Bible explains things to be are words from the communities of ancient Israel and the early Christian movement. “We cannot talk about God (or anything else) except with the words, symbols, stories, concepts, and categories known to us, for they are the only language we have”, made me think about the idea that

A testimony is a personal story of what God has done in one’s life, the story of one’s conversion. Many people have dramatic testimonies of God rescuing them from death and destruction. Others have stories a little less dramatic; nevertheless they are life-changing. We truly leave the kingdom of darkness for the kingdom of light. C. S. Lewis puts it this way: “It may be hard for an egg to turn into a bird: it would be a jolly sight harder for it to learn to fly while remaining an egg. We are like eggs at present. And you cannot go on indefinitely being just an ordinary, decent egg. We must be hatched or go bad.”1

In our society today, it can be hard to fully understand and relate to biblical texts written in a seemingly different world. With stories of great joys and sorrows, I found that although the world we live in today is different, the messages are still highly relevant. As long as humans are still imperfect and desired filled beings, we will need the wisdom of these biblical texts to guide us. As the stories of overcoming hardships and suffering made an impression on me, the stories of love and acceptance filled me with great emotion. There are many differences that seem to separate Christians today, whether in arguments such as interpretations or certain beliefs. This has only divided an undivided religion. I found comfort and strength from texts about love and a calling for Christians to come together despite differences. In this, I found a deeper connection to myself and others.

It wasn’t until the year of 1996 there was four people that die, and I had many questions about their deaths and to me it seem that everyone that I had love was dying. Friday one of my best friends died then on Sunday my Aunt die and on Friday my step Father die of 17 years being married to my mother. Two months another aunt had die. There was many questions I had about everyone that I love had die. I started to think if there is a God I would like to get to know for myself.

The photo that I have chosen to reflect on depicts me sitting on a large green chair with my brother. I was anywhere from five to eight, and he was around eleven or thirteen. He is looking out of frame and has one of those old CD players from the nineties in his lap, his hands hovering over its silver hardware, frozen in a hesitant stance. He looks entertained, or maybe just distracted. He has what my family calls his “Harry Potter” glasses perched somewhat low on his nose, and true to the late nineties and early 2000s’ common style, his black hair is spiked up. Beside him is me, in a light shirt, wearing the thin headphones that accompanied the CD player in his lap. I look either deep in thought and like I am taking in the music very thoroughly or very uncomfortable. I will let you in on a hint: I was very uncomfortable.