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“I no longer call myself Christian” this was part of a long text message I sent to a good friend recently. It’s not that I have no desire to be Christlike but that I find it increasingly difficult to identify with Christianity-at least the way it has been defined. I’ve found it necessary to distance myself from that western phenomena called Christianity because it no longer defines what or who I am or where I am going.

The pursuit of truth is not abstract it must be more than words on paper, no matter how good those words are, it’s not about believing all the “right things” – which seems to define so much of christianity in the west. It must be more than holding tight to certain biblical truths, even though this might be important. If your religion doesn’t lead you to your true self if it doesn’t call you towards the only journey that matters, the inward  journey, where you find the only thing of true worth, your authentic self, something is seriously amiss. True, it may not be the fault of religion, perse, but it might mean finding a path that helps you or leads you in that direction and if you find that christianity is not the way courage is needed. It’s hard to identify the right path when your present, frame of reference, describes a way you can no longer identity with its even harder when the language seems to have little or no bearing with the direction that you are going.My text message finished with these words “I’m willing to admit that I could be making a very foolish decision, re: Christianity, but its one I simply must make and strangely it feels life-giving”

If I had to define, now, what it means for me to BE christian, as opposed to CALLING myself Christian, it would be the following reflection by Richard Rohr;

The Christian life is a matter of becoming who we already are, and all that we truly are! Can you imagine that? Is the seed already within you—of all that God wants you to be? Do you already know at some level who you authentically are? Are you willing to pay the price? Even the mistrust of others? Could that be what we mean by having a unique “soul”? Most saints thus described the path as much more unlearning than learning. There are so many illusions and lies that we must all unlearn. And one of the last illusions to die is that we are that different or that separate, and finally we are all one and amazingly the same. Differentiation seems to precede union and communion, for some strange reason.

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