What it means to me to be a Christian...

            Jesus the Christ was a Jew. He was a reformist. He was not a Christian. Christian to me is an ugly, blood-ridden word. It comes with a history of slaughter and theft. It stole from other cultures rituals and sacraments that were considered sacred. However, the love of Christ supersedes all boundaries. Christ’s love is matchless. It is pure. It is not bound by ethnic background, sexual preference, social status, education, or religious beliefs. Christ is the Divinity within us all. Our exponential potential breathes life because of Christ. Christ is the Son, the Sun, and the light that emanates from the eyes of those who see.  

            So, I could never say that I am a Christian. I must be honest in this delivery. I can say however that I am proud to be a follower of the Christ. The grace that flows like a river from the love of the Divine can set everyone free. Salvation is, to me, a tributary that leads us (when followed) to our exponential potential. As Howard Thurman says in The Search for Common Ground we all have that innate potential. We all have the choice to honor or deny it. To me being a follower of Christ means a commitment to honoring Spirit. It means a commitment to the search for truth. It means possessing the integrity to serve righteousness regardless of the consequences.

            The weight of being a follower of the Christ requires us often to walk alone. It requires us to emanate light in a dark world. It asks of us to practice our faith even if the whole world is dead set against us. More than anything else, it asks of us to be ready to offer up our lives for the justice of the cause. It inspires us to love all. Christ did not segregate his love. Christ loved the sinner when no one else would. Mary Magdalene washed his feet with her hair. Christ did not tell those who were in same sex relationships that they were not worthy to receive the gift of the sacrifice he made. He did not tell African Americans that they were not worthy of his grace. He did not tell the poor that they were too poor to understand spiritual freedom. Christ loved all.

            Christ led by example. He led by parable. He loved all and forgave all but he also raged. He also wept in the garden. Christ’s love has no earthly definition. To me, being a follower of the Christ means I am a work in progress involved in a mystery so great, so profound,  and so pure that I cannot possibly understand it yet. The brilliance to me is the unveiling, the slow unwrapping of the Great Mystery. The beauty of the journey is not in the arriving, it is in every slow step (whether painful or beautiful) in the process toward our exponential potential.