Devotion

There's this coffeeshop I go to virtually every day not far from where my mom works. It's nothing special; they play some cheesy eighties music, they have high speed internet, and the staff is super nice.

The other morning I got my coffee and headed over to the same spot I sit at for hours at a time. This time, however, I stumbled into a meeting of church folk studying the bible. Now, I'm not going to rip on church folk for being religious--I'm not that unoriginal--or believing in God. It did however, make me a little envious.

I'm not an atheist or agnostic. I believe there's a God. I'm not going to get into why (does it really matter what my reasons are?). I don't, however, feel so comfortable with my beliefs as to broadcast them to a bunch of strangers, like these folks did. They didn't offend me or anything, rather I was more....amazed at the unabashed way in which they talked about the "Lord" and "creation" and discussed scripture. Don't they feel too conspicuous? Don't they worry about some telling them to knock it off? Aren't they worried about getting lynched in the parking lot? I would be.

I'm actually kind of jealous. Not in their devotion--there's something about the super religous that creeps me out, probably because I've had so many encounters with so many of the devoted that have been really nasty and judmental people--but rather because they're so confident in their beliefs. There are very few things I'm that I'm so confident in that I'd be willing to share it with a room full of strangers. Why can't I be that confident in myself?