I got out of the Navy in 2008.
I started dealing with my friends killing themselves off before I got my honorable.
I had more than enough after I was discharged.
After losing friends while active, and after they got out to suicide I swore I would keep living to honor them and live the lives they couldn't.
It is getting more difficult everyday. I'm feeling PHYSICAL PAIN from the fact that I can see data and patterns while the entire world is just giving into feelings and forgetting what happened 5 minutes ago.
I'm in the works of getting my VA disability increased because of this and extra therapy sessions, but all I get is platitudes and "just go along with it, you need your job" kind of shit.
I am SOOOOOOOO fed up with it. SOOOOOOOOOOOOO FUCKING FED UP WITH IT.
If I were not a man of my word, I would not be here right now. I am a man of my word and I will be here until the bitter end.
I get where you're coming from, but I don't think my faith is blind. I've read the whole Bible extensively, even as far as to look into the Hebrew and Greek. The laws and history make logical, rational sense to me, and the parts I don't understand are either obscure references to old prophecies, or perhaps haven't yet come to pass. I've also experienced miracles, and know of friends and family who have too. There's also near-death accounts, and idk if this would even help you at all, but Mark Taylor prophesied Trump's election before he even ran. I suppose you do have to at least believe that the Bible IS historical record, and that the events in it occurred, even the miraculous ones, even the fact that prophecies written in the Old Testament came to pass in the New. But I also see God's hand in the way that the earth itself functions, in every strand of coded DNA. Do you believe in evolution? Because that is a huge leap of faith in itself.
I also think that it's one of the best handbooks for morality you could ever find. Simply to want to follow its guidelines would show enough belief. This notion of having to "believe in belief itself" before you can know God is making it into some miracle you must perform without help, obscuring the reality of how easy it is to actually trust in a higher power. It's NOT on the same level of believing in the tooth fairy, God exists whether you believe He does or not. You either trust in His commandments and Jesus's words and have faith enough to follow their command, or you don't.
For unbelievers to put the burden of proof on the believer, is merely shifting the responsibility from themselves. You either find enough faith to follow His code for living a good life, or you have enough faith in the middle of some dark night to ask Him directly to open your heart to it.... Or you don't. It's not on me to prove the ever-living God exists. He just does, with or without your faith.
The Bible says to do some pretty fucked up shit tho...
You sure you're not using it as a mirror?
You might think that's an insult, but I could only hope to see myself reflected in the Bible's pages, or better yet, it in me. God had some strict rules for the nation of Israel to abide by while He had His abode with them, but that doesn't change God's holiness and ultimate message of forgiveness and mercy and love, sir. Do you have time for this conversation? Because if you wish to bring up some examples we can talk about it.
I wasn't insulting, more of a compliment on you as a person
“Seek the LORD while he may be found; call upon him while he is near; let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; let him return to the LORD, that he may have compassion on him, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts." -- Isaiah 55
I see what you did there, btw, that's a pretty good zinger heheh. I pray that God will guide your thoughts and bless you. Keep well.