FWIW - you sound like me a couple years back.
"I am plagued always
with the feeling that I am not what I should be, but what that is I do not know".
Hang on to that thought, never quit
searching. That was the feeling that wouldn´t let go, like probing a bad tooth; that forced me to examine everything, twice
and again. The dry foxholes of the church didn´t do anything for me, and scripture was a tangle of convoluted sentences.
But I kept at it until I finally came to the point of surrender, when I gave up trying to make sense of it my way, and let
scripture speak for itself, working my way from the end of the Book back to the front. After all, a conclusion I can understand,
a beginning leaves me wondering where it´s going. The Bible spoke of humans failing a test of trust, and here it was, another
simple test to undo the results of failing that first test. Give up the knowledge of good and evil in exchange for eternal
life. Trade independence for faith? So, I looked for the heart of the matter; and left the rest to take care of itself.
Was I left out? I felt like I was. But one day it came to me just how personally my rebellion (not a fuckyouGod type -
although I had gone through that. More like a ´I´ll take care of myself, thankyou. I´ll do it my way.´) had contributed to
the death of an innocent Man. I can´t explain it other than it was really vivid, and totally clear my connection to His
death, and my intense (and I´m NOT an emotional type) sorrow that I helped cause it. What made it all the more intense was
that I realized He did it anyway for me.
And it focused down to a single point, where it was just me and this mystery
guy bleeding on a cross looking down on me; nothing else in the universe, just me and Him.
And this is where all the
scripture reading paid off, because I realized in that tableux that His actions WERE speaking to me personally, one-on-one,
stronger than mere words -- I was so full of me, me, me; and suddenly here was the designer of the universe, looking at me
and offering His death to me, saying He takes my place, here - You don´t deserve to die for me, I protest. "But because
I love you, even though you don´t know Me, I´m dying here for you; so that you won´t Die."
He´s given all He´s got,
just to get my attention, not beating me over the head, or spouting thundering words, or dangling me over flaming pits --
just slowly bleeding and suffocating to death in front of me - all just for me. (the personal Jesus had just sunk in, not
like it was a personal club you held alliegence to, but this face-to-face me & Him uncluttered by anything meeting)
And
just hanging there waiting for me to take His offering of taking my place, to give to me All that He had. For nothing, Just
acknowledgement. Just for me to say, ´okay, I accept what You´re doing is for me.´
And I won´t go all into the feelings
that swept through me, just that I´ve never been the same since. And at the same time, I´m still me; just pointed in a different
alignment. Still the same problems; just a different outlook on them. Still the same frustrations; just a different hope to
them. But what a relief not to have anything to prove, or accomplish, or conquer, or solve, or whatever; just to walk through
life being guided in a different kind of way. No, I don´t hear a physical voice giving directions; but I´d be suspicious
of that anyway; and that leaves no room for faith. [And faith is believing that that contact with Him in realizing what He
did was real, what He did was very real, and the stories of His resurrection were real. ( If He could raise Himself from the
dead, then He could raise me.)] But the details of the afterlife were incidental compaired to wanting to become what I
was created for, now. When I die, I´m dead, and that´ll take care of itself one way or another; but what was this life supposed
to mean here and now? I wanted to KNOW that the insignificant dust that I was, mattered to someone. The created object
hoping to be used, and pleasing the crafter, making Him glad He made me. I wanted to feel that He noticed me at all, such
a small speck in the grand parade of history and universes.
And He stopped time in one moment and looked down from
the cross, and said ´I´ve been waiting to meet you. Come follow me.´
Hope you find your moment in time when you´re
face to face with Him too.
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