I heard a story this morning that made me laugh out loud, literally.  A co-worker, who has very strong reservations about organized religion, shared with me an experience that has etched a place into his impression of faith, Christians, and Christianity.

 

He explained that he was sitting on a bus, on his way into work, and saw a man get on the bus and proceed to walk up to what appeared to be one of very few open seats to sit down.  There was a woman sitting next to the open seat, who had her bags on the seat he was approaching.  She looked up, pointed and told him, “there is a seat back there,” pointing towards the very back of the bus.  My co-worker wondered at first if the woman knew the younger guy and was kidding around, but could soon tell by his baffled expression that it was genuine.  The man proceeded towards the other seat in the back, while the woman pulled out her bible and proceded highlighting scriptures.

 

I spared him the broken record of how Christians aren’t perfect, and that our focus should be on Jesus, blah, blah, blah…

 

Frankly, I am tired of the invisible force field that we as Christians continue to pull out and cloak ourselves with over and again, while sending folks we interact with throughout our lives to some version of the back of the bus. 

 

We have become so consumed with the rules, with the pageantry, the rigid regiment and posturing, that we are severely missing the point… each other.

 

And so, I begin to look at this collage, and question the pieces…their authenticity, necessity, and truth.  I ask again, the hardest questions of my entire life…what does it all mean? 

 

In a space now, where the questions feel as important as the answers.  Am I highlighting words on a page, and missing life?  Is it possible, for extended runs to honestly do both?  Do I finally rest in the idea of grace alone?  What if I am starting to believe less in all that I believed in solely for so very long? 

Can I take Jesus only, and refuse the machine? 

 

I don’t know…and today, in the cool, crisp of Fall…I listen as my co worker shares his sacred things with me, I smile at the vendors setting up the fruit markets in the Center of the plaza, I am amazed at how quickly the season has turned into something so radically different from what it was merely weeks ago…And this, for me, is enough knowing for today.