I think it’s important that someone tells you that there’s nothing wrong with you.
Did you hear me?
THERE.
IS.
NOTHING.
WRONG.
WITH.
YOU.
I think this is important because (for me, anyways) the message I received for most of my life is that there IS something wrong with me, there has ALWAYS been something wrong with me, and until I cross over into heaven … there will always BE something wrong with me.
I’m a sinner.
I have a sin nature.
I inherited this sin from my father.
Who got it from his father.
And so on.
I was told that the only reason God can stand to look at me is because when he looks at me he doesn’t see me and my sin, but Jesus and his sacrifice, his blood, his torture … and somehow my faith in this work of Jesus makes it so that God can stomach my very existence.
I’m bad. I’ll always be bad. And although I’m “saved by grace”, there’s always more to do.
More Bible verses to memorize.
More church services to attend.
More prayers to pray.
… It was all quite exhausting, really, because no matter how much you did and no matter how much you thought that maybe you had done enough, there was always way more to do.
This is why the message of Jonathan’s book is so, so important - THERE IS NOTHING WRONG WITH YOU.
You were not born a sinful being.
God doesn’t recoil when he looks at you.
You don’t need to do more.
You don’t need to be more.
God, the Divine, the Spirit, he, she, they - you are loved and adored just the way you are. It’s radical love, radical acceptance, radical inclusion at its very, very best.
Do I have a whole list of Bible verses to prove my point? No. I’m exhausted by that life, to be honest. When I identified at Evangelical I had a mountain of Bible verses to prove every point I ever wanted to make and so when I left Evangelicalism and became more progressive or liberal or whatever the heck you want to call me, I tried to amass a new mountain of Bible verses.
BUT.
Then I realized something - I didn’t want to leave one “camp” and enter another bringing along the very same baggage.
Right?
It’s easy to be an arguing, debate winning theologian on the conservative side and then be the same arguing, debate winning theologian on the liberal or progressive side. In other words, it’s easy to switch sides and be the very same person on the new side that you were on the old.
So I don’t have a mountain of Bible verses for you, I just have the person of Jesus. Or the person of Buddha. Or the person of any big religious teacher that has changed the world over time. Jesus and these other teachers embody the Christ, the breath of the Divine, the Divine Energy of love and grace the brought the universe into existence.
They lived it.
They embodied it.
They moved in it.
They changed the world with it.
AND they showed you and me, by their example, how to do the same. And so I look at the person of Jesus and I see a picture of God who accepts everyone, no matter who they are or where they’re from or what they did last night … and he welcomes them.
He does the same for you and the same for me so that we may go and do the same for someone else.
Much love to you all.
✌️
Glenn
Was this helpful? Consider supporting the show on PATREON or BUY ME A COFFEE.
Did You Miss The Episode? 🎧
Tap the photo below to open up Apple Podcasts OR go to your platform of choice and search “What If Project”. Enjoy!