I Want My Jesus back!!!

Important thought today...

I allowed the fundamentalist Christians to define Jesus for me which made me decide, in a very rational way, to not 'believe' in Jesus anymore.  Their virulent, hateful, rule-making, judgemental nature attached to the name Jesus was intolerable for me.

I grew up believing in Jesus as my friend; an older brother.  I learned that Jesus would help me with anything and only wanted the best for me.  In times of stress, I was comforted by that knowledge.  I didn't always think of Jesus and I wasn't a 'born-again Christian', but there Jesus was - part of the makeup of who I was.

Who I am.

And that's why I've decided to take back my Jesus for myself.  I won't allow those negative people to steal from me what was always comforting and loving.  I will define Jesus in my life.

The Jesus that is my friend believes in love above all else and is happy when people love each other - no matter what their gender is. 

The Jesus that is my friend is found in a windy day, a shared moment, a laughing child, an insight, a moment of caring.

The Jesus that is my friend believes in taking care of the least among us..."Whatsoever you do to the least of my brothers, that you do unto me."

The Jesus that is my friend has a fantastic sense of humor (and thinks all my jokes are funny).

The Jesus that is my friend believes that everyone is on a personal journey, and each will choose the path of love and light in their own way, in their own time.

The Jesus that is my friend did not die to redeem my earthly sins...the Jesus that is my friend died to show that we have a spirit that lives forever and that what we see in this earthly life is an illusion of our own making.

I don't need a bible to tell me what is true or false about Jesus; I feel the power of love and comraderie at a level beyond the words.  Just as I feel the energy of the universe and the 'right'ness of what I read in A New Earth by Eckhart Tolle, and the letting go of Buddhism.

This is Jesus, my friend. 

Though I am still not a Christian, I'm reintroducing Jesus as friend into my life to join the universe's energy of love, and Buddha, and the power of trees, and the infinite stars and all the other spiritual teachers and friends in my life.

Welcome Home!

(I wish I could have found an image that was Jesus and a female person, but the image above most made me think of Jesus as a friend.)