Did he just call me religious?

I'm an active user of LinkedIn, a kind of web-based Facebook for business people. I was quite involved with it while seeking my career transition, but I still enjoy using it to connect with people---it's got some powerful tools.

Basically, you stick your resume on it---the usual, professional background, achievements, etc. There's also personal information like interests and groups you belong to, education and so forth. If you've glimpsed at my profile, it's no secret I'm a Christian.

Recently a business contact of mine discovered LinkedIn and took a look at my profile. "Wow," he said "You're really religious."

Ouch.

I knew what he meant but I still cringe when I hear people describe me that way. To me, religion is the process---the do-this, do-that, say-this, say-that trap that we fall into that makes us forget all about the r-e-l-a-t-i-o-n-s-h-i-p that is between us and God. To me, religion is the middle device that usually messes things up.

I think it's because I had religion growing up---and it didn't work. I knew 'religious' people and they were empty shells. Religious institutions were just that---buildings. They weren't magical places where God would visit because they had long aisles, marble columns, and stain-glass windows.

When my business contact said that, I had a brief conversation with him that contained a lot of what I just wrote. I shared my reluctance to use that word and did the quick relationship explanation of what makes me....me. Simply put, I'm a guy with faith. I love that word....faith. Do a BibleGateway.com search on Faith and you'll find over 400 usages in the Bible. Religion gets 6.

Faith might sometimes get a bad rap as it's this ethereal fluttery word that kind of implies a childlike innocent almost-naive hope in something we can't see.

And that's what is so great about faith.