As a child there was confusion, for me, around the Christ that I was brought to worship each Sunday. This Caucasian man with long hair and a beard – a man albeit with a seemingly kind heart and kind spirit, was a man very different than me and the men in my family. Clearly he was the Christ that everyone knew and worshiped but for me, I did not have that feeling that he was “my God” This was coupled with what I often saw as hypocritical activities within church structure, activities I felt did not align with what it meant to be Christian. I knew early on that I needed to explore what was out there and what resonated with me.
I was raised Pentecostal and saved when I was 20 years old. While I am grateful that my parents made Christian life a part of my childhood, my need to explore took me to many different churches. For a time I entertained Catholicism, Jehovahs Witness and others. I never felt at home with these denominations or with my Pentecostal faith. It was not until I found Friends that I felt I had found what I was looking for.
I am fed spiritually through the human experience. My love for people and my connection to them is what brings me closer to God. Vince spoke recently on how we conceive of God and how that might be what is actually keeping us from our connection to him. He noted that if we look at God as love or as an event it might be a way to experience him more in our daily lives.
As I think of Vince’s message and about the Caucasian Jesus that brought confusion to me as a child, I realize that for me, God is not a figure out there, a super-being that I cannot relate to or connect with. God is in me and in the people I connect with daily. Whether I am looking after the babies in the nursery at Friends, connecting with people through my work, or engaging someone new with a hello and a smile, I feel my greatest connection to God when I am connecting with the human spirit, in whatever form it presents itself. I feel at home doing this at Friends Church!