Many people have rejected God, or Christ -- or Buddha, or their Ancestors, or the Tao -- because of the way someone ELSE has defined it. At an impressionable age I lucked on a comment by a Christian theologian that meant alot to me. He countered the claims that "a Christian is this" and "a Christian is that" with "A Christian is someone who has a personal relationship with Jesus Christ." And I went, "Yeah! And it can be PERSONAL!"I doubt if any two individuals in my life know the same two Anitras. Not because I am putting on a different pose for each of them, or because I'm that extremely changeable, but because I'm going to interact at least a bit differently with each different person. As I perceive Jesus, He is a lot bigger, more complex, and far more ancient than I am. I am certain that each person who has a relationship with Him has a distinctly individual relationship with a distinctly individual Person.
Somewhere in the second chapter of Corinthians there are a couple of paragraphs about the fruits of the spirit. If your spiritual path yields intolerance, divisiveness, abuse and violence -- if you and the people around you are sick and unhappy -- that's when you should question what you're doing. If your spiritual path yields tolerance, love, generosity, self-discipline and other good things in your life, you are on the right track.
Have Fun!
I have, with a lot of sweat and torment, managed to work out a belief system for myself that reconciles all the things I believe in. I don't preach it very often. I spend most of my energies on more concrete actions.
If I find out tomorrow that God is a Little Blue Truck and I am the exhaust pipe, I'll just start over again. ;)
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