This most likely is my last World Race blog. As always, it’s real and honest and you should read it at your own risk. These are my thoughts unedited…
I’m not going to lie…being back in the states is hard. Like a vampire exposed to light, I’m finding it difficult to adjust to my new surroundings. I feel blind at times as I carefully feel my way around this unfamiliar world.
Life is different after The Race. America is different after the race. People have changed. Heck, I have changed. My dog has expanded in girth and my mamaw has decreased in height. Friends have new husbands, new wives, new babies, new lives. Familiar faces have passed away and strangers have entered the picture. I feel more homeless in my own bed than I ever did sleeping on a bus station floor in Asia.
My world has changed.
It’s no longer acceptable to wear the same clothes 4 days in a row.
I have actual choices as to what I’m going to eat for dinner.
I am overwhelmed by the luxuries of America.
I have to work harder to find peace.
I don’t constantly smell like I just worked out and sweated stale Doritos (graphic yet true).
I no longer have orphans tugging on my clothes.
The war against mosquitoes has ended.
For the first time in 11 months, I’m allowed to be alone.
I have a hot shower and an actual bed.
I’m driving on the “right� side of the road.
My social circle no longer consists of the homeless and prostitutes.
I’m not woken up by obnoxious roosters at 3am.
I can read and understand billboards and advertisements.
I am able to understand the sermon at church without a translator.
I no longer like my Jesus.
There I said it…. I DON’T LIKE MY JESUS….
After living in the bush, loving on orphans, befriending prostitutes, and baptizing the nations, my Jesus has been UNVEILED, DIVULGED, EXPOSED….
My Jesus is a FrAuD…
You see….
My Jesus’ skin and hair is like looking into a mirror, born into a class that acts all superior.
He parades around in his SUV, that good ole’ American that he pretends to be.
He’s caught up in wealth, looks, and all his bling, another step closer to the American Dream
Hiding behind the safety of a white picket fence, a paycheck and retirement as his only defense.
Cowering in fear at the onset of confrontation, ignoring the cries of a spiritually deprived nation.
Protected and hidden behind a layered brick wall, buried deep within the church, stain glasses and all.
Declining to provide, to serve and to give, refusing to model the life that we should live.
His hands are clean and his sandals are polished, as his days on the front-lines have since been abolished.
He’s not a God of works, of action and deed – He’s instead more interested in the words that you read.
Caring only about church attendance and Christian tradition, He’s plagued with the disease we know as religion
My Jesus is impersonal, cold, and distant, yet willing to punish and scold in an instant.
He won’t know your name in this game that he plays, but yet he demands that you tithe, worship and pray.
Who is this Jesus, this “God� that I serve, whose rules and regulations are on my last nerve!
I’m not exactly sure why I continue this journey, because honestly I can say there’s nothing I’m learning
Except to fear God like a prisoner of war, until I wait for judgment and he settles the score.
I’m dried up, empty, and hollow inside – I don’t like this Jesus, no matter how hard I’ve tried.
……………….
But after returning from the race it was my revelation, that I worshiped a God with a false reputation.
The truth is that Jesus is like nothing I heard, in fact everything above is completely absurd
I was worshiping a Jesus that man had created – a Jesus that was dead and completely outdated.
I put him in a box, a prison of his own, and knocked my King down from his heavenly throne.
The Jesus in the Bible is not to be confined by pages, as he has continued to save throughout the ages
He came down from heaven to this earth we are in, and defeated the enemy we know as sin.
If he walked into your church on this very day, I’m sure some of you righteous would shew him away
To most Christians he would appear as a total stranger, maybe raise some red flags as you think you’re in danger
Because he wouldn’t be adorned in His Sunday best – that suit and that tie with that outlandish vest
His smile sports dirt, dust, and a little mud, you better protect your carpet before he stains it with blood
You can’t categorize him as black or white, and no matter how much you wanna be right
Jesus is not a man who chooses one over another, because he loves us all regardless of color.
This man known as Christ is not bound to a church, instead he’s out continuing the search
Because safe doesn’t describe Jesus by any means, because the REAL Jesus redefines the American Dream
Prophesying, preaching and casting out demons, so please don’t think that there isn’t a reason
That Jesus isn’t real and raising the dead, so get that church theology out of your head!
Because there isn’t anything logical about this story, that the God of creation would trade in His glory
To come down to earth and make himself nothing, to give his life as your ultimate offering.
Because Jesus came to set the captives free, not to be the Bible hero we’ve dumbed him to be.
He’s not enticed by our money, house, or our car, He loves us all just the way that we are
Blinded by clutter, chaos, and reckless debris, we can’t seem to really discover who we’re meant to be
He wants our hearts to be stripped of our stuff, so that we know that in Him we are more than enough
More than enough to go across the world, to deliver a message to every boy and girl
That their life is precious and worthy to save, enough for Jesus to die and rise from the grave
So people WAKE UP and question what you truly believe, because a year on the race has caused me to see
That I can’t just sit in a pew to experience Christ, a life of Christian church hopping will no longer suffice
He’s called us to go out and preach to the nations, to awaken dead hearts with holy vibrations
So you can see why I no longer like my Jesus, because the image I had wasn’t exactly prestigious
My friends and foes please hear my cry, you MUST experience the REAL Jesus before you die!
Some of you are breathing yet dead as we speak, your hearts are battered and your spirit is weak
Just get down on your knees and begin to pray, start yelling the words your heart wants to say
And you’ll have the same experience that I had on the Race, a chance to encounter the REAL Jesus face to face.
There’s no doubt that I serve the one who has risen – a Jesus that broke me out of my religious prison.
Now go out and live a brand new chapter and begin living a life where you couldn’t be happier!
AMEN
Thanks to all of those who have followed my journeys and read/commented on my blogs. You inspire me. 🙂
