Despair Over the Future

We are encouraged to ask, then seek, then knock. Keep going until God meets with you.

Problem is, God may have finite patience, but humans don't. We don't relate to dogs the same we do other humans. We don't expect dogs to try and comprehend our ways. We get down to their level.

God has come to our level...that's why Jesus became a man.

Problem is 99% of Christians since then have not seen him.

All I'm saying is, if someone asked me why they should be a Christian, I'd be hard-pressed to tell them why.

Why? Because most of the benefits are purely spiritual and only apply after we die. We humans are physical as well though. And most of our lives revolve around the physical whether we like it or not.

Third, God never acts outside of His attributes. In fact, it is impossible for Him to do so.

I want to love God, but I don't like the way he runs the world.

Well, if you ask me, I have no idea why God would love us.

All I've seen is that Christianity has not made the world a better place.

Problem is, in his desire to be known, he's created a world filled with unending violence and evil.

My point is that being a Christian does not make you a better person, nor does it make your life in this world at all better (if anything, it just makes it worse).

I did originally begin with God and his motivation. And it didn't satisfy me.

All I'm saying if the benefits of being a Christian only happen when you die, what's the point of trying to act like one in this life?

That's definitely not my testimony.

If I may offer something that helped me.

Until we are satisfied in God, no relationship will prove satisfying. We were made to find our satisfaction in God. When we don't find it in Him, our longings don't go away. We merely look for substitutes to find our satisfaction. Since only God can truly satisfy, these substitutes will fail. In relationships this is particularly harmful because we are in effect asking another to do something only God can do. We remain unsatisfied and we tend to blame the other person for their failure to meet our needs. This is why so many people are in unhappy relationships and marriages fail.
Psalm 23 is about finding in God all we need...The Lord is my Shepherd; I shall NOT WANT.

If this is true, then why did God give Adam Eve? If what you say is true, then instead of giving Adam a human companion, he should have said "you need to be satisfied with Me."
And to bring that into the world of today, I should be satisfied with knowing there is a God, even though I still exist in a human, mortal state, and he does not; I'm expected to compete here in the lower world for work, money, a place to live, food to eat; God has none of those worries. I'm surrounded day after day by other beings, primarily humans, but also cats, birds, dogs; we're all stuck down here in the physical realm, so I think it's only natural that physical beings desire companionship with physical beings.
It's not like I want millions of dollars; I don't care about that. I don't care about having a big mansion on a hill; I grew up in a small house in the suburbs, and I would rather be there than in some gated community, hiding behind locked doors, served by maids and butlers.
I don't care about having a fancy car; I just want something that can get me to work and back everyday.
But you are saying all of this is wrong, I shouldn't want any of this, I should only want God. So it's wrong for me to desire a soul mate, a life companion, someone who's hand I can hold, someone to talk to and share my life with.
This is partly what my recent songwriting has been about. And the person telling me these things is always someone who is happily married. The church likes to throw us a bunch of ideas that don't comfort us at all; eventually it always gets back to DENY YOURSELF. YOU ARE NOTHING, YOU DON'T DESERVE ANYTHING, SO BE THANKFUL THAT JESUS DIED FOR YOU, BECAUSE YOU ARE A WORTHLESS EVIL SINNER. IF YOU ONLY GET ROCKS TO EAT AND POLLUTED WATER TO DRINK, IT'S STILL MORE THAN YOU DESERVE. And at that point, I say "I give up. If I'm so bad, just kill me."

There are many in the more traditional wings of the church that don't subscribe to rapture theology.

All I'm saying is, if someone asked me why they should be a Christian, I'd be hard-pressed to tell them why.

Why? Because most of the benefits are purely spiritual and only apply after we die. We humans are physical as well though. And most of our lives revolve around the physical whether we like it or not.

We get down to their level.

Simply stated everyone, as I've stated before, the longer I remain a Christian, the harder it is for me to defend the popular/traditional concept of God in which a world of mass rape, genocide, slavery, etc. could possibly be allowed to exist. Do not give me that BS heretical doctrine of original sin. That was an invention of Augustine. People are not born evil. They learn it. I know it, and you know it. Nor can you blame Satan. He doesn't force people to sin.

I want to love God, but I don't like the way he runs the world. It's easy to defend him when you don't have to deal with what victims of the previously mentioned crimes have been forced to endure. Trying to defend God in this fashion is like trying to defend someone who could've pressed a button to stop a world destroying bomb but simply chose not to. All of the good they did does not erase the fact that they allowed that to happen.

Then again, I supposed I'll just be denounced by everyone here and maybe even by God himself as nothing but a proud b*tch.

Indeed, I daresay it would've been better if none of us had been born.

I'm one year away from turning 30,

I'm one year away from turning 30, and I see my life afterward as a downward
hill of loss for everything and everyone that's given my life meaning.

It seems that you are rather old to qualify for this for the "Young Adults Forum."

But in the world outside, it's possible she is treated like a child because she has yet to marry or raise a family. These are the standards that the world judges us by - yes, even the world of the church. Unless your reason for being single is to go jump into bed with anyone that comes along - and I can assure you that is not the case here.

Putting too much weight on the opinions of the outside world would crush us, and that's what the world would love to do.
"The fear of man is a snare, but whoever trusts in the LORD is set securely on high." Proverbs 29.26

Should we behave as children because the world treats us so? That is agreeing with it, even if just in sarcasm. We should not allow the world to influence us in that case either, or in any case. It doesn't matter if the entire earth considers me "old." Old is a relative term, and relative to eternity, I'm a babe.

Feels like I'm reading my own words. I can't say I have the answers you're looking for. But I will say, for all its issues, at the end of the day, however angry or frustrated or lonely I feel, faith does provide some measure of comfort. Then again, maybe I just feel compelled to say something 'cause I empathize with people who feel down. Like you. It's not much but I hope it sounds genuine.