It ain’t what you think

Over the past few days, I’ve been having a lively email discussion with an old friend about my belief system.

When we lived and worked in the same city, we were both life-long Baptists.  We often discussed god, faith, the bible, heaven and hell.

You can imagine her shock when I fell out of love with religion.

While she continues to pray for my soul, she has remained open to learning more about what I do and don’t believe in.   In some ways,  the disagreements make our friendship stronger.

I was, however, a bit surprised when she used the term “real” Christians .

Huh?

As opposed to the fake ones, I guess.

Seriously?

So, I shared with her my feelings about that distinction as I’ve heard it many times before.  Because of it, I have often joked that I wonder if Christians would actually recognize Jesus when he comes back.  They are so busy criticizing and questioning the legitimacy of the faith of others,  that I’m not convinced Jesus himself would live up to the image they have created in their minds.

You can imagine my surprise when this morning during my meditation, Jesus himself showed up.

But here’s the funny part.

He was sitting on a can, on a street corner.  He was dirty, reeked of urine and had a “will work for food” sign at his feet.  Shouting “I am Jesus and I love you” to passerby’s who did everything they could to avoid him.

In my vision, I walked up to him and asked, “Are you for real?”

His response, “What does your heart tell you?”

That didn’t take long.  Of course, I knew it was him.

I’m like, “Dude, your sitting here smelling like piss, and expect people to fall down and worship you?”

I expect no such thing.  Only that those people who claim to know me would figure out, I’m already here.

He continued, “People have all of these preconceived ideas about me.  They are sure that I’ll show up just the way they’ve imagined, with the help of the stories they have heard for years.  They continually miss the obvious, looking for the imagined.”

I laughed.  I knew what that meant.  I think of how many things in my life that I am blessed with didn’t exactly show up as I had imagined them. Even now, I fail to see the blessings of the past several years, all the while knowing deep down that what I wanted more than anything was freedom.

I have that.

But it doesn’t look like what I imagined.

I invite you to take a look at your life.  Look at all the people that have hurt you.  The job you hate.  The car you drive.  And ask yourself, “what did this really give me?”  “What gift have I overlooked in this situation?”

Try to ignore the dialogue in your head and listen to what your heart says about the situation.  You always know your own truth.

But here’s a hint:  It ain’t what you think.

If you’re up for it, come back and share your discoveries.

In the meantime, I’ll be sending you love.