Julie, thank you for being so vulnerable with your faith journey. I've come to similar conclusions. To be honest, I actually don't need him to be the Jewish Messiah in order to have a deep relationship with Him, to love the Biblical stories we have today, to acknowledge my faith heritage is just as strange and beautiful as others, and that even if it's not perfect, it is mine. Because I am His. I am the Lord's. And it's not to an exclusion of other ways of speaking about the divine. I am culturally from the Christian lineage, and it is powerful, it is beautiful, it is complex, and it is alive. So, so alive.
I don't need to be factually right about everything in order to dive deep into my cultural heritage and find the beauty and strength from it. Humans have needed sacred rituals to survive, and I have finally admitted I'm a human and need a place in the family of things where I am supported, inspired, and authentically me.
I cannot be authentically me if I deny Jesus's influence on my life. He is in my DNA. He is in my bones. And I will no longer deny it.
Very interesting. I can relate to the existential looping of thoughts. This mental focus always kept me in a debate of is my mind capable of convincing me that Christianity is the way vs it truly being the way, just as Jews or Muslims have the same conviction that their belief system is correct. I also am not sold on miracles…seems like that was a huge devising factor for you.
Julie, thank you for being so vulnerable with your faith journey. I've come to similar conclusions. To be honest, I actually don't need him to be the Jewish Messiah in order to have a deep relationship with Him, to love the Biblical stories we have today, to acknowledge my faith heritage is just as strange and beautiful as others, and that even if it's not perfect, it is mine. Because I am His. I am the Lord's. And it's not to an exclusion of other ways of speaking about the divine. I am culturally from the Christian lineage, and it is powerful, it is beautiful, it is complex, and it is alive. So, so alive.
I don't need to be factually right about everything in order to dive deep into my cultural heritage and find the beauty and strength from it. Humans have needed sacred rituals to survive, and I have finally admitted I'm a human and need a place in the family of things where I am supported, inspired, and authentically me.
I cannot be authentically me if I deny Jesus's influence on my life. He is in my DNA. He is in my bones. And I will no longer deny it.
-Suzanne
Very interesting. I can relate to the existential looping of thoughts. This mental focus always kept me in a debate of is my mind capable of convincing me that Christianity is the way vs it truly being the way, just as Jews or Muslims have the same conviction that their belief system is correct. I also am not sold on miracles…seems like that was a huge devising factor for you.