The Jesus Club

Recently someone asked me what I do for work. When I told him I was a religious trauma coach, he was curious. He wanted to know more. I explained that I work with individuals who have been harmed by high-control religion to heal their wounds and recover their authentic spirituality.

But he had one question he simply had to know: Did I personally accept Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior.

Aside from the fact that that's highly personal, there's something else that struck me about this question.

What if I had said no?

What would have happened?

Perhaps I'm being presumptuous, but it's likely safe to assume that he would've seen me as outside of the club. As not saved. As lost.

Someone who needed to be redeemed, himself being the instrument of my salvation. 

Him inside, me outside. 

The irony is that perhaps the central theme of who Jesus was, His heartbeat, was about unity.

How many times did He find someone who had been drawn out of the circle (Woman caught in adultery, woman at the well, Zacchaeus just to name a few) and then named them as His inner circle?

And somehow we've contorted the image of Jesus to become a measuring stick, a metric, just another circle to draw ourselves in and someone else out? 

How have we inverted Him so?

It seems that the circle Jesus drew was more like a daisy. It's circular. There's an inner circle. But there's no wall, no barrier. There's petals that reach out. Each petal reaches in a different direction such that there's petals in all directions. And again, instead of a barrier, the petals tip outward further, giving the image of endlessness, breadth, expansion.

What if Jesus came to open our eyes to see that we are one?