On Being a Christian

Two things Jesus said would characterize Christians were that they loved each other and that they loved even their enemies. He described this love as something people would be able to see and feel, and as something that would heal them. I’ve found this kind of love to be incompatible with judging people.

For many years I felt that I could love people if they met certain criteria. The criteria would change, but I was always in the role of gatekeeper – the one who decided whether or not there was a love match. Often I deemed myself unworthy of loving another – probably at least as often as I felt others unworthy of my love. Both of these conclusions made me miss out on countless opportunities to love. Although I’ve known and championed Jesus’ injunction “Judge not, that ye be not judged,” I guess I didn’t get the scope to which it applies to my life. I guess I didn’t get that I couldn’t be a gatekeeper and love at the same time.

It is a challenge for people of faith who try to uphold strong moral values, to not judge. What I’m coming to now is that my sense of right and wrong can’t be based on constraints. If my rightness is defined by my not doing a certain thing, it contains an implied judgment of those who do that thing. But if my rightness is defined by who I am, and this is true for everyone else, there is no judgment required in order for us to accept each other.

I’m starting to grasp that morality can’t be based on fear. It can’t be based on fear that I might do something that would cut me off from goodness. My faith must be that who I am on the inside – my own best sense of goodness – is a reliable guide for what is good and real. It doesn’t work to say I shouldn’t explore any direction of thought because I might get myself in trouble by doing it. Mary Baker Eddy says that creeds and doctrines are not a benefit to man, but that the time for thinkers has come. Jesus says the kingdom of God is within. So I feel it is my call to explore this kingdom. I am confident that my very makeup, as the image and likeness of God, gives me the ability to know what’s true. This must be the basis of my morality – not what I’m told not to do but what leads me in the focused harmony where I feel that crystal zing of love.

This coincides with the teachings about love in the Bible. It’s natural to love when I consider that each of us possesses the kingdom of God as our core. No choice of lifestyle or path of inquiry changes that. Any person, any time, can look within and see this kingdom of God. Meanwhile, it’s not my job to steer anyone’s ship. The whole attention of all my being must be in keeping myself in tune with the great symphony of being. This will enable me to make the decision to love in every interaction of my day. And I can love knowing that I don’t need to wait for permission to love, and there is no gate of worthiness that either I or the other must pass through – that deep awe at the wonder of each of God’s children is really our natural state of being. Mary Baker Eddy says, “To those leaning on the sustaining infinite, today is big with blessings.”