Someone told me recently that I needed to figure out if I was a Christian or a spiritualist.
I was trying to explain to them that I believe in Christ but also find that Christianity today is not serving the needs of people who are looking for something more spiritual.
After looking up the meaning of spiritualism I know I’m not that.
So here’s my question:
Do I have to fit into some pigeon hole? Some predefined, definitive category?
If I don’t do I exist?
I read the beliefs of modern day Christianity – I’m not exactly that either.
Strange. Somehow it doesn’t bother me.
Gets me to wondering…….
If we had to pigeonhole Jesus where would we stick him?
Maybe the first thought is “Christian”. But that seems a little strange. The term wasn’t even invented until he was long gone.
He was kinda New Agey in some ways but that doesn’t seem to fit. Besides He lived a long time ago – hardly “new”.
“Healer” might work but it has some negative connotations which would probably make a number of believers cringe.
“Preacher”, “Evangelist”, same thing.
I think “Spiritual Leader” would be good. Some may confuse it with spiritualism – so that’s out.
“Rebel” might be a good category for Jesus. He was against most of what the religious leaders of his day stood for. In fact, he had some ideas that were thought strange by most of his peers.
I guess you could say he was all of these and more.
Son of God may be the simplest category to put Jesus in. But then he’d be lumped with everybody else and what’s the point of a category if it includes everyone?
Which brings me to a point.
Why do we feel so compelled to categorize? Even the posts on this blog are categorized.
We’re talking people and their beliefs here though.
Somehow if I can slap the label of Christian on you then I feel like I understand you – or at least know enough about you to stay away from you!
And so it goes – the constant labeling and categorizing.
And none of it really sums up the wholeness of the individual getting pigeonholed.
But we don’t care – we’re not doing it for them. We’re doing it for us.
We need all the help we can get trying to understand others with our limited ways of thinking so we categorize and label.
So what am I?
Good question.
If you’re looking for a category to stick me in, you’ll probably find one.
I kinda hope you don’t try but ultimately it is up to you, isn’t it?
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I do not believe that we can categorize or label Jesus because not only was He the Son of God, but that also made Him one of the members of the Trinity which makes him actually synonymous with God the Almighty Father Creator of Heaven and earth and therefore omniscient and omnipotent.
Therefore why would anyone want to limit the limitless by putting labels or categories on Him? HE is infinite and eternal and is wonderfully mysterious and awe-inspiring! If we attempted to organize Him into compartments that we could understand then we would remove the wonder and awe that is rightly HIS!
He is full of Glory and so it is right that we have a reverent awe and fear of HIM! This motivates us to give HIM the worship and obedience that HE so deserves and should receive from us.
It is a privilege and honour to be His faithful servants and to give Him our complete trust in His Sovereignty and Wisdom.
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