New to Reclaiming the Way? Begin here.
You are loved. You are loving. You are lovable. And so is everyone else. Period.
This is our starting point on the Way. Won't you join us?
Hi friend,
If you long to believe these statements but have been wounded by humans who have told you otherwise, especially humans who call themselves “Christian,” then I’m so glad you found “Reclaiming the Way.” THANK YOU for taking the risk of reading a post that mentions Jesus. You have no reason to trust me, and I am humbled by your presence.
No matter what you’ve been told, the Way of Jesus is a path of radical inclusion, love, openness, healing, forgiveness, justice, care, generosity, abundance, joy, peace, and freedom. This is NOT the Way that I was taught as a child and young adult. It is not the Way that I hear many Christians proclaiming. Many churches have piled damaging dogma, doctrine, legalism, literalism, power, and judgment onto Jesus’ Way. No wonder so many people have left or run from church. Jesus would have too.
When I was working full-time as a priest and pastor (more on that cosmic joke later!), I had hundreds of conversations with people that began, “I haven’t been to church in a long time because I was so hurt / angered / confused / rejected / abused …. ” The list of painful experiences went on and on and on. After thanking them for their courage in coming to talk with me, and expressing profound sorrow for the mistreatment they had experienced in church, I would say:
In my experience, nothing has done more to distance people from God and Jesus than Church. Have you been hurt in church or by Christians?
I knew this hurt from first-hand experience. I grew up in a church-context that belittled, demeaned, judged, and ostracized me for who I was (a girl), what I was not (a practicing Roman Catholic), and how I behaved (like a thinking human who argued and asked questions when crap theology made no sense). So I spent a lot of time with my pets and in nature, where I felt loved.
And because deep in my bones I knew that those church messages were wrong, I studied religion. A lot. Likely too much. And I experienced a different kind of hurt in that religious studies academic context. Thankfully, during that time I found Buddhism. In developing a regular meditation practice and working with teachers, I came to see that my racing thoughts and intense emotions were normal and not a sign that I was doing something wrong or a bad person.
I learned that I could train my mind to experience more calm and open my heart with compassion. I began to experience a place free from all the beliefs and judgments and categories that separate us.
Out beyond ideas of wrong-doing and right-doing,
there is a field - I'll meet you there.
When the soul lies down in that grass,
the world is too full to talk about.
Ideas, language, even the phrase
"each other"
don't make any sense.
~ Rumi
Sending you abundant blessings,
Libby