on faithfulness

I grew up in Christianity, and Christianity is always trying to define how it is DIFFERENT; how it is unique.  The real truth is, of course, that it is not unique in any way, shape or form.  Every single one of those things is found in many other religions.  But people seem to want to be exclusive, to be special, to be different.   I'm saved but you aren't.

Personally I have found it far more enlightening to look around and see what is similar and learn from that.  What do various religions, for example, have in common, hold in common to be important.  Because whatever they have in common they more likely all have right. How do various people around the world manage to feed themselves?  What is similar, where's the overlap, what might seem different on the surface but be the same underneath? 

I have found a similar principle with growth and change.  Often the more people think they are growing and changing, the more they are staying the same.  If they are wildly vacillating in what they are doing, first one thing, then another, then another, finding meaning here then there then this other place, chances are they are really doing the exact same (wrong, or at least wrong headed) thing again and again.  I have found for me, I have a direction, which has pretty much always revolved around the same core things that are and always have been very important to me, and I'm still doing them.  I've changed, I've adjusted direction, but there are only rare hard starts and stops.  Ok, maybe only, well, maybe not even that.