I have friends on Facebook that come from all walks of life, Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, Transgender, Gay, Catholic, New Age, Atheist, Democrats, Republicans, Woke and Non-woke. I call them all friends, and they are. I genuinly care for them. I am not their judge. I hope as each one reads this, that they can hear my heart as I dare to be transparent and vulnerable with the likelihood of being judged myself by the very words I am writing.
This may be a little long as I share about me and my experience with controversial issues. I am being totally honest.
Let me start when I was eight. I wanted to be a horse. Don’t laugh. It was serious stuff for me. I ran around my house for over a year, galloping, whinnying, and drinking water by slurping it out of a bowl. I wished so much I had been born a horse and could run with the wind! Therefore, I cannot judge the child that wants to identify as an animal.
From the ages of nine to eleven I felt like I should have been a boy. I didn’t like to do the things that girls wanted to do. I climbed trees, chased snakes down the river, perferred toy dump trucks to dolls, and could totally keep up with my boy cousins. I so wanted to be a boy, until the day my best friend tried to kiss me. Then I was confused. This continued until I was 13 or 14. Therefore, I cannot judge the child that feels they should of been born a different gender.
When I was 14, the movie The Exorcist came out. I became fascinated by the supernatural. I read and watched everything I could about witchcraft and magic. I held seances with my friends, tried to levitate, move objects with my mind, drew pentagrams and attemptde to enter into trances. I played with Qiji boards and Magic 8 balls. I’ve experienced demons in real life touching me and speaking to me. I have seen them. I somehow could tell the future at times. Therefore, I cannot judge the one who is drawn to dark things.
As a teenager I smoked pot, drank, sniffed paint, and took speed and acid. Therefore, I cannot judge the one who uses drugs to disengage from the painful places in life.
When I was a young mother and my oldest was two. I dreamed of raising her in a nudist camp and teaching her that all things natural was good, even her nudity. Therefore, I cannot judge those who think outside of norms and consider themselves Woke.
I found company with those who thought like I did. My friends and I all smoked pot, listened to Rock music, and partied every chance we got. They were family to me. Therefore, I cannot judge those who enjoy getting together with friends to get high.
When I was 23, I began searching for a deeper meaning to life. I had been given a Bible by my in-laws. I began reading it, curious if maybe the answers I was looking for was somehow there. I felt drawn to read the book of Revelations, though I couldn’t understand at first what I was reading. When reading the last chapter about the end being a beginning, a world with no pain, no sorrow, and no more crying, I got on my knees and spoke out loud to God and said, “If you can accept me as I am, I give my life to you.” The pain melted from my heart and for the first time I “saw” the Kingdom of God. I felt as if I had just been awakened to something totally new!
That day my desires changed immediately. I was completely at peace and slept that night without fear of dying for the first time in my life. I was filled with a joy I could not explain. I know now, it is because I had been born of the Spirit and the mystery of Christ in me had begun. This realm I had entered into was, and is all around us, but we can’t “see” it until we are born again. Thus the reason we who have had this experience want to tell others, often to the disregard and disdain of those who do not want to hear.
My value systems may have changed because of my life with Christ and my love for Him, but, I don’t judge those who have not had my experience and whose lives may or may not include some of the above mentioned things. And it is not, just because I have experienced some of these things myself, it’s because I know they just haven’t seen the Kingdom of God all around them. Their life is their own and if they choose not to look because they don’t feel the need to or have seen a misrepresented form of what they think they might see, then I choose not to judge them for it. Every friend I have brings value to my life. I honor them for the unique and special individuals they are.
Jesus’ command is that I love the Lord my God with all my heart and my neighbor as myself. Everything I do, and the choices I make, are all wrapped up in these two commands. Have I ever strayed away from this path I have chosen? Yes, but it is different now. I don’t like how it separates me from Him. I always come back, because there is no place I would rather be.
John 3:3 Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot “see” the Kingdom of God.
Matthew 22:36-40 Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it. Love your neighbor as yourself. All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.
