Achievement of Salvation: Learning From Langston Hughes' Story - Essay Sample

Introduction

When it comes to religion, no one is an expert yet somehow after attending this semester's classes I feel like I could be one. All the time I spent reading religious books and tending to reflective essays on worship and Christianity certainly changed my perspective. I have always believed in God and as far as worship goes, I feel like there is room to do more. The story of Langston Hughes brings about the concept of attaining salvation and how everyone perceives it differently. Langston is just a young lad who thinks and feels that for one to attain salvation, they have to see a white light, which would mean that all sins are forgiven. After going through this story, I came to the realization that life is not the same for everyone just like religion. Everyone should live life according to his or her own pace and the same way we should live according to our pace, we should worship in a manner that fulfills his or her soul.

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This semester's course made tremendous transformations in my life both in class and outside. I never took the time to comprehend most of the teachings in bible classes as a child. It is now after fully engaging myself with this course that I realize what I had been missing for years. I now see worship in a new light, involving more than just prayers. Attaining redemption is part of worship just like Mr. Herbert obtained forgiveness even with all his flaws. I now understand that everyone falls in to sin at some point and constantly seeking forgiveness as an act of worship enhances our belief in God and our spirituality. It does not matter how long we take to realize our mistakes like Abel who only after prison did he understand the depth of his sins, for as long as repent as soon as we know.

I never thought that preserving the environment was part of worship. After reading Berry's story who claimed that churches do not preserve the earth, I remembered my pastor Grant who always preached about recycling and it dawned on me that he was just doing his job, enhancing our worship. I had to dig deeper to fully understand how nature was part of the worship. The nature's beauty that we all admire is part of God's creation, preserving it is like showing respect to His other creations, and that respect extends to Him. Therefore, respecting God equals to Worshipping Him.

Nature could also mean destiny or fate just like in the Half Life story which shows that even with bad tidings, comes good things. Even in the darkest of times, there is a light somewhere; we just have to find it. I do not know if it is the intense reading I have been doing or just how the lecturer teaches but whatever it is, it has positively affected me in the sense that now I get to dig deeper into my troubles to find the good in them. We live in a world of the unknown and uncertainty for that is the nature of life. The Pied Beauty poem indicates that even though the future is unknown, the anticipation makes life more beautiful. I truly believe that it is all part of worship for as Christians we believe in God whom we cannot see or touch, hence being pleased with the uncertainties of life should not be a problem.

I go to class for the grades but never in my life did I think that it could be more than that. Now I find myself engrossed in a group talking about homework as if it was a new movie. The thing is now I see life from a completely new perspective. I know that for me to attain spirituality I have to acknowledge that evil lurks around us in many forms. The Douglass story tells of the evil in human beings inflicting sorrow and pain among one another. Looking back in high school with all the bullying, I see Douglass's point. Countering the evil within ourselves is not an easy task, Bunyan would agree. Therefore, even though I sympathize with the bullied, the bullies have a bit of that sympathy as well.

I never really understood why crime rate on earth keeps increasing by the day until I came across the Gookin story and I learned that the good people, those we consider righteous, those who can do something about it, fold their hands and nothing because they gain something from those crimes. As humans, we welcome and embrace sin because our dreams are inclined to it and I feel that should not be the case. When I thought I was starting to comprehend evil, the course just had to end with a dreadful topic, death. Death is considered the greatest evil by humanity. It sucks away people's hopes and dreams. Even I feel Donne was trying to be positive in meaning that there is life after death. The Bible and other religious books say so as well. Truth is, people are not truly convinced because if they were, it would not be such a saddening affair.

I feel that hats should be off to death for even though it is considered evil by many, it still keeps people on flexible schedules. People want to live to the fullest for tomorrow is not promised just like the rabbi who violated the law and went to work on holy days for he felt the people needed him. As a Christian, I have learned to embrace the concept of life after death for it assures hope just like a father has hopes of seeing a son grow into adulthood. On a scale of 1-10, I feel like my spirituality lies at eight after going through this course for it gave me the urge to view worship as a concept that is surrounded by many aspects such as death, nature, and evil. This course has given me an outlook on the kind of person I want to be. I confess that I feel closer to God now more than ever.