responsibility | The Wildberry Patch

With 100 total posts behind me in this journey, and this being #15 as I meditate on the steps along this journey, I need to reflect.

This is MY journey. My journey is based on some presuppositions.

First is, my statement of faith.
The second is, my story.
The third is that most people that would recognize these things, are going to be reading this, to join me in this journey, or at least, to watch the journey.

If my journey isn’t YOUR journey – which it isn’t – why would my journey cause YOU to have a negative reaction?
Does my believing that the sky is green affect you? Of course not, though, you might want to argue with me about it.
The point is, if I want to say the sky is green – you can leave me alone, think I’m crazy, and go on. To attack me about it would be ludicrous, if not ridiculous! A total waste of time. Why would you feel the need to deliver me from the belief of a green sky?

Does my believing in Jesus Christ as the Son of God affect YOU? If you don’t believe in Jesus…how can it? If you don’t believe in Jehovah God, or the Holy Bible, how can my believing affect YOU? It doesn’t matter, does it?

It’s not like believing or not believing in stop signs.
You believe in stop signs. I don’t. My lack of belief may run me right into the side of your car killing us both.
But that’s not like believing in God, Jesus or the Bible, is it?

If someone believes that stepping on a crack will break their mother’s back…it doesn’t stop me from stepping on any cracks!
If someone believes that eating 20 almonds a day will keep the doctor away, that doesn’t force me to eat 20 almonds a day.

But if I say I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, very God of very God…son of a virgin, was crucified, died, buried and rose on the third day…some folks take great offense at that.

If I want to wear a scarf tied around my head, because I am a Muslim…that’s ok.
If I want to wear a scarf on my head because I am a Christian, that’s legalism.

If I want to wear dresses down to my toes because I live by Sharia law…that’s ok.
If I want to wear dresses because I believe that is what I read in scripture…that’s being too strict.

I could go on and on….and I could change the other to other religions, foods, sanitary practices, other cultures, other gender.

My point is, this is MY walk, this is MY journey – and if what I have to say encourages someone else to walk similarly, or even differently, then my sharing has fulfilled it’s purpose. It is for sharpening one another’s minds that I write. It is for developing my path, and my direction, and logging it down so that I am accountable, if only to myself. If it does not agree with you…so be it. It’s MY God that I am striving to please, not yours, and we can still be civil, we can still be peaceable, as long as we both agree that our beliefs are OUR responsibility alone.

Now, here’s the song that keeps playing in my head:

You’ve got to walk that lonesome valley,
You’ve got to walk it by yourself….
Ain’t nobody else gonna walk it for you..
You gotta walk it by yourself

here’s a version…warning….it’s the Carter Family, so it’s VERY old school country!

So, I guess step #15 is to realize that this walk is a lonesome one.
It’s deeply personal, intimate, and private.
It is between ME and MY GOD.

But sometimes, our lives interconnect, and we touch one another, and that touch affects each others’ lives.
I don’t know if other religions have the various denominations that Christianity does, so I am only going to speak about what I know.
To me, it would seem, that if followers of Christ could spend more time focusing on their own walks, and taking from others the good…and just tossing the bad, we could have a lot less denominations and a lot more unity.

Oh wait…you don’t approve of my collar? Then I guess we’ll have to split up. And I wouldn’t be caught dead sitting with someone wearing capped sleeves! Thanks for joining me in this journey,
In His hands and under His wings,
~Christi
Ps 63:7 Because you are my help, I sing in the shadow of your wings.