Ran across this link and it brings around some painful memories. This all sounds like stuff you’d come up with in a counseling session.
Some life altering experiences for me:
My 2000 trip to China. Met many many kind and good hearted people who weren’t necessarily Christians. I found out that you cannot put God in a box. How in the world could a merciful God condemn a whole nation to eternal hell? Will God judge the isolated Chinese peasant the same way He judges me? It is something I am still struggling with.
Being emotionally blackmailed by an authority figure at my church. When confronted about it later on, he specifically said that given the chance, he’d do it again. I am still struggling with this. I am reminded again and again that I cannot and should not put my faith in humans. Rather my whole faith depends on God and Him alone.
The longer I live the more I am forming my own opinions about life and about Christianity which may or may not be what my parents/preacher/elders teach. No longer am I a zombie willing to believe whatever someone tells me. People will lie to you in order to control you. I have come to realize that and am on guard much of the time.
Working for a control freak for 6 months. I cannot begin to tell you what potential psychological damage this did. Coming into a job over and over again thinking its your day to go, grows paranoia. I have alot to overcome because of this. But I am growing stronger everyday.