Is Jesus Christ Your Lord and Savior?
“So how do you work with people using spiritual psychology?” asked the first woman.
“Well, I just listen to them, see them as whole and complete, assist them in finding their own answers,” I said.
“But do you have some kind of theology?” she asked.
“Do you teach that?” she asked.
I kind of chuckled, not sure exactly how to respond. It was ironic to me that I was part of a spiritual group, legally a church, whose spiritual head was Jesus Christ, and yet this woman found my approach lacking.
“I’m a big fan of Jesus,” I said. “I just don’t always put it in those terms.”
“Yeah,” she said.
I told her that I’d read many spiritual texts and that for me the Bible was one way to get at the truth, the living truth, that was inside each person. She made it clear that for her the Bible was the only source of truth she would trust.
The two women, it turned out, were coming back from a mission trip in Colombia. They were working with people in exactly the way the woman was describing, offering Jesus as the one true path to salvation, teaching from the Bible. They shared stories with me about their church and their mission. I listened, doing my best to stay positive and affirming.
There was a part of me that found their approach limiting and heavy-handed. Why did someone have to say the magic words ‘Jesus Christ’ to be saved? What did the Bible offer that other great spiritual works did not?
And I realized that expressing that opinion would set us all back, that the best thing I could do was listen to them and appreciate the good work they were doing with their mission. Discarding my criticism of their approach was not only the most practical and workable way to relate to them, it was also the most in line with the method I had just outlined to them, meeting people where they were, understanding that we are each on a path uniquely our own, that we are all going to the same place.
In the rainbow of spiritual experience, these two women were coming from aqua marine, and I was coming from purple. Was my color better than theirs? It was better for me, that was for sure. But who was I to say that they should be purple, not aqua? The only way through for me was to accept that each color had a place in the rainbow, that what they were doing was just right for them.
The women shared a lot more with me about their missionary work, and I listened. They offered to help me onto the airplane, but in the end one of the airline employees came for me instead. The two women and I parted as friends.
I am grateful for this experience. It’s easy to say that we are all allowed the freedom of our own choices, that we all have a journey uniquely our own. But it’s quite another thing to really know that truth at the deepest level, to embrace others no matter where they are coming from or what they are espousing. My opportunity, I see, is to embrace others not because they are right or wrong, but because they are. Another color in the rainbow of human experience. Another chance to love without condition.
Beautiful, thanks Matty!