Jesus is My Guy...

One of the hurdles of faith for many people these days is Christianity’s claim of exclusivity. According to Barna Research group, “Younger Americans have been shaped by a culture that esteems open-mindedness, tolerance and acceptance. Today’s youth and young adults also are the most eclectic generation in American history in terms of race, ethnicity, sexuality, religion, technological tools and sources of authority.”

In this cultural mix of unparalleled access to information, and unparalleled access to other cultures and religions, claims of religious exclusivity to many feel arrogant, and stifling of conversation. This is especially true when friends or family or someone of another culture or religion (or no religion) live and act with honesty, care, integrity, compassion, and service.

For example, I have a good friend who on a good day is open to the possibility of a benevolent force in the universe. On a bad day she’s flat out atheistic. Yet, her life is filled with loving, caring, compassionate acts of service. She has been an adoptive big sister to a young woman for more than fifteen years. She is a foster care provider for the humane society, and has taken in hundreds of pregnant cats and kittens nursing them to health for adoption. She drives an eco-friendly car, and monthly serves at a homeless shelter for women, providing day care so single moms can take a break. If there is a grading scale for getting into heaven, she gets an A+ and I might be lucky to get a passing grade. I’m sure many of you know someone similar.

So, what to do? Her view of things is that Christianity gets in the way too often. Too many rules, too many don’t do this or don’t do thats. And, frankly, I often agree. So, I decided a while ago to join her. And instead of defending Christianity (she is very good at baiting me) I started asking more questions. Why does she drive the eco-car? Why did she decide to be an adoptive big sister? Where does her motivation come from? I even went with her to a number of meditation sessions at a Buddhist meditation center. It was great! The conversations were awesome. I learned a lot! We have much in common. It also helped me frame up my point of view on why Jesus. When she asked me similar questions back, I simply said, “well, Jesus is my guy or more accurately, I’m Jesus' guy.”

Jesus chose me by a genetic lottery of my birth. My family took me to church, and I kinda liked it. More accurately, I loved it. Over time, I fell in love with this Jesus guy. (Jesus also challenges, pushes, sometimes frightens me, and often frustrates me too.) However, from any perspective you want to look at it, Jesus chose me, I did not choose Jesus. I was baptized without my consent! I was given the gift, unearned, of Jesus. So, I’ve decided if Jesus chooses me, I’ll do my best to choose back… Jesus is my guy. I also know full well, that I hardly ever finish what I start, and Jesus will have to keep calling, “follow me” cuz I’m sure I’ll find something else interesting and I’ll get distra… look, something shiny!

With a little perspective, I can also say I’m simply not smart enough to jump ship at this point in my life. Even if someone were to convince me that Jesus was wrong and Buddha was right, I would likely stick with Jesus. Because even if I spend the rest of my life trying to live and learn with Jesus, and build on my short history, I would still at the end of my life have only scratched the surface of what Jesus means, meant and will mean in the future. I’ve realized that I’ve got limited hard drive space and limited time to fill it up… So for me, I’d rather work to be as expert as I can at being a follower of Jesus, rather than try to know a little about many other faith perspectives.

Which brings me back to my friend, because of my personal exclusivity; I need her. I need to hear about the thing/faith/no-faith that chose her. I need her to critique, challenge, question, harass, and love me into clarifying my following of Jesus. And she needs me too. She needs me, with honesty, love and care, to share why Jesus is my guy. And we don’t need to convert each other. But we do need to trust each other enough to promise to stay in relationship with each other, so that we can learn, grown, serve, and live on the same planet together.

And that is not easy! It means from time to time, she’s going to zing me, maybe even kill me (theologically, positionally, emotionally, intellectually… not like with a knife or anything) and I’m going to have to let her. And vice versa! It’s going to take that kind of trust. She may have to burst my Jesus bubble, and I might have to burst hers… in order to live, we might both have to die to our selves, our positions, our theology and our best intentions.

And, maybe most importantly I've got to remind myself that the same spirit of love that is at work in me, is at work in her too. One thing being a follower of Jesus has taught me is that fundamentally I am a limited, finite, needy being. My eyes are cloudy in many ways. My heart too often holds some things that aren’t so good.

So, I follow Jesus, I’m not in the lead. And I believe when we follow Jesus we may find out things that are uncomfortable… like maybe others are following the same Holy Spirit that possessed Jesus, it’s just given them another name to call it. And those people might be the very ones we need to challenge us deeply into a more clear view of who Jesus was and is. I’m certain I’m never smart enough to discern this alone. But I do have a litmus test. Jesus said that the most important thing in all of scripture, and all of life, was to love God, and love your neighbor as yourself. So, with all the humility I can muster, that’s my bottom line.

If someone’s life reflects a love of neighbor, I’d hope they’d be willing to have me on their team. And if they claim to love another god that inspires them to live that way, I’d sure love to hear about that god. Or, if they feel there is no god, I’d sure love to hear about that too… because for me, in part, that’s what loving our neighbor means. Listening. Hi, I’m Scott. Jesus is my guy. I think I’m doing my best to follow… who are you following?