I Am Whatever I Believe You To Be

I am whatever I believe you to be. - Byron Katie

When I read the above quote from Byron Katie, the esteemed author, and spiritual director, I didn't know what to make of it at first.  

And then the other day it occurred to me that I knew exactly what it meant.  

You see, I spent a lot of years in my early days of church ministry worrying over whether I had the right theology and was believing the right things.  

My concerns soon extended to the world around me, and I began to view people as either right or wrong, for me or against me, inside or outside.  

My world view became narrowed by this dualistic way of thinking, and I found myself growing arrogant and over-confident in my certainty.  And then my certainty had the rug pulled out from under it.  

It took a crisis of faith, and a long journey back to myself to discover that my judgments of others, my long diatribes against those who didn't believe the "right" things were merely projections of my own doubts.  

What I've come to understand more fully (though not yet completely) is that when we set aside our need to be right... when we embrace a non-dualistic way of seeing the world and other... we open ourselves up to love.  

And Christians need to hear this good news now more than ever.  In his latest book Unraptured, author Zack Hunt writes, 

American Christianity doesn't just suffer from bad theology. It's lacking in love. 

It doesn't have to be this way.  You and I can change this.  It begins by simply letting go of our either/or dualistic thinking and the comfort of our certainty as we embrace unknowing and surrender the outcomes to God.  

And it also means worrying less about whether someone is getting it right when it comes to faith, and worrying more about loving them where they are.  

May you discover the peace that grows when you learn to surrender, and may the grace and peace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you now and always. Amen.