Sharing a correspondence, my friend wrote:



"Have been contemplating the line, "goddess and her grandson Jesus"…….wish I could get over this idea that you're either a Christian in the storybook version, or you're not….."



About being a storybook Christian, PaLEASE! You know better than that. Who, ever in all of history was a storybook Christian? Christ, period. Even trying to be a story book Christian is a set up to be a Pharisee, and that is what we are surrounded by, Pharisees - people more interested in the book than the stories, the stories of the real people all around them who are hurting, instead people try so hard to look like the storybook pictures that they are hiding themselves, isolated and angry and in truth hypocrites. The book of Romans is all about trying to get the first set of Christians, Jews, to recognize that the second set of Christians, Gentiles, are really Christians too. Paul over and over argues that the details are not the point. He says: It is not that which goes into the mouth that defiles a man but that which comes out of the mouth. So not our lack of religious practices, but our words (in thought, word, and deed) that defile us. The point is only this: Do you believe Jesus is the Christ the son of the living God, that his death and resurrection offer you salvation - a path to grace? That's it. I know you believe that. In the last days the daughters will dream dreams and see visions and prophecy. It is a good thing. We are a third wave. You and I both know the whole bible is a story - much of it history and much of it allegory - like a children's first reader. See Dick run. See Jesus die. It is a view through a mirror darkly. The true god is so much more than any of our stories, more than we can possibly get our little brains around. It is all good, it really is. The idea of heresy is heresy. It was invented for tribal unity and for defense against outsiders. We are growing beyond the tribal insider outsider thing. Jesus is the way the truth and the light. It is just that he may have many faces.
Well, I got on a little roll there...



My Friend also wrote:
"Someone left an anonymous note on my car the other day. It said in part, "trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding, in all ways acknowledge him and He will direct your path." Proverbs 3:5&6. It was signed "someone who is praying for you even though I don't know you." As dismissive as that encounter could have been, I find myself smiling, thinking ok, I'm listening and have been listening. "



About that bible verse on your car, I actually find that scary, invasive, presumptive, and condescending. I applaud you for taking it at face value that someone is caring about you and praying for you. But the other message is that some is watching you, judging you, and trying to control you. She is saying "lean not on your own understanding" she means that you are in deep misunderstanding, that you are not acknowledging God, and he is not directing your path and all of that needs to change. This is some who is praying that you be pulled back from the brink of hell therefore someone who is visualizing you as on that brink, a very negative thing. Beware. Put up big shields. On the other hand the prayers are for your benefit and are going to a God of such infinite grace that ignorant prayers are meaningless; you are beyond their trivial power. But that is just at the deep level, at the day to day level I think that is a scary note.
If she is praying for you it is called intercessory prayer, you know that. Intercessory prayer is tricky. I believe in intercessory prayer, and I do it daily. It really helps me get beyond myself, to be empathic, to extend my energy beyond my little stuff. But I think it needs to be very general, very open ended. Just hold them up. "Thy will be done." Some sick people will die. Some people that I see as in need may be so far beyond my understanding, already in such of state of grace that I do not even recognize what they are. I once told my daughter that she will be fine, but that she may turn out to be fine in a way that I do not now understand as fine, and that is fine too. I have been praying "Humble me gently." I know I need it bad, but please not the anvil on the head. The person left that note on your car needs humbling. You do walk in grace. You walk humbly with your god, that is all.