JESUS UNINTERPRETED....LISTEN

There was a time, and not all that long ago, that I could or would not even say the word Jesus. All the holy crapola I was fed...whoever thought that would be attractive, inviting, to anyone?  According to me, a bunch of old white men is who...not to put too fine a point on it. But who else were the Popes and the High Holy Preachers and Teachers back then, and mostly are today? 

When I got permission to have a God of my own understanding, I also got the Sermon on the Mount as our original textbook. Personally, I take the Sermon to be as close as we're going to get to what the Man actually put out there. 

When I found that I needed to study the Sermon, it didn't take long for me to realize I needed to get Jesus. Not a welcome thought, until my blinding flash of the obvious introduced Jesus Uninterpreted. I could have the Jesus of my own understanding. 

That has led me...comfortably...to believing that I could quit trying to be a good, honest and true, sweet, kind, considerate and loveable person. Clearly, the more I tried for it, the less I believed I had  it...so I tried harder, failed, tried, ad nauseum.  Notice the many times "I" shows up...there is no spiritual even peeking through...just I want all decked out as I need.

I quit trying for goodness in all its pretty forms (face it, we have only our own idea of goodness to begin with); pray thank you that we have it. Then we use that which we already have...like, BE IT. Improbably, Just Try Not To Be As Nasty As You Want To Be is the short form of all the holy writ. 

Believe me, and I speak from experience, that requires pulling up all the good, honest and true, etc., etc. etc., that I was given at conception and carry with me to this day...largely... embarrassingly largely...unused.

We go with the Sermon which boils down to: Love the other, the one we are resisting. Love the one we envy, fear, hate. Brick wall! To just try to love the one we hate is the epitome of a self-determined objective...and we know how far that'll get us. 

We must needs back ourself up further...opening to what Love even is, not to how it feels to us but to how the Father within speaks to us. And he can...and he will...and he does. Ours is to listen...to trust and listen...to sit and wait on the Lord...and listen.

But they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint ... Isaiah 40:31

Thank you.