Blinded by the lord

Talking to a friend tonight I got a big whiff of the good word, or at least what some people call it. I don't have anything against whatever makes people feel better about themselves , be it religeon , Thier job, circle of friends or whatever. Everybody needs someone to lean on, right ? Maybe some of us are leaning a little harder than others......maybe a lot harder in some cases. A lot of us have things in our past that we would sooner wish to forget....painful stuff-failings of a most personal nature . It is a common thing for a lot of folks to not just try to forget these painful episodes but to smother them with a declaration of faith. Let the lord into ones life and all the bad stuff is forgiven...not just forgiven, maybe it wasn't really bad at all, just the path that led you to the lord. If my asked my firend :"How did you find the lord ?"he could reply:" Well , I did crack for about 15 years and praise be, he showed up and changed my life ! " I find it kind of odd, I guess-all those years of drugs, staying out all night buying the shit while the wife and kid are at home wondering where the rent money went, not to mention the food money.... then Shabang ! Here comes the lord letting you off the hook and giving you another chance. How the hell did that happen ? Was it the lord or did it finally register that the 'path' was going directly to a grave and a very dismal future for his family....maybe it's better to pretend that a lot of the past is non-existant and that the future is the only thing to look at from now on. The same patterns of anger, abuse and misunderstandings are still there....living on the edge and always being ready for a confrontation with anyone who might bring up the past. Praise the lord and pass the blinders. A painful past cannot be changed but if it is dismissed then it is likely to be repeated . One can pray all they want but the lord cannot save you from yourself.......you have to do that on your own-make the decision to deal with whatever darkness lies inside you . The way I see it is that the 'lord' isn't some guy with a beard up in heaven giving us all another chance , the lord is like a handbook on how to not fuck up. Go by the book and your less likely to kill someone, cheat on your wife , steal some stuff or get mixed up in a number of temptations that could cause your undoing. I think its completely weak for people to say that the positive changes they might have had in their life came about because of some devine intervention......rather than steps that they took themselves after realizing that nobody else would do it for them.