Op-Ed: Conscientiously Christ-like

Editor,

I recently read a Facebook post by Gamal Newry that came across my newsfeed that stated:

“It would appear that anyone (me) who believes in the One God (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit) is not informed, uneducated, has not traveled, and just stupid.

We do not have eyes, a mind, intelligence, or the internet.

We cannot speak or give an opinion.

“The Devil is Liar”

I want to take a few minutes to address a very important dynamic to Bahamian culture during a time of much dissent, confusion and possible shifts that may not be challenged to preserve what already exists due to the discourse within us, to be either overly righteous or even to run rampant on our quest to be free.

The recent uproar in Paris due to the opening of the Olympic Games has left a bad taste in the mouth of many devout Christians globally and many people are finding themselves defending their faith instead of practising it.

Notwithstanding the idea that cultural differences are obviously what makes each of us unique.

The idea that religious freedom is at the core of controversy during the Olympic Games is a rather distasteful reality.

This leads me to the purpose of my expressed thoughts and why I find the whole thing just sacrilegious in that we are wasting our time by even discussing an event that holds no purpose in the grand scheme of things as people were less entertained as they were disgusted and even convicted by what they saw.

And so it leads me to say that, it is my belief that in order to fully live our best lives, we must embark on the journey to purpose.

I was first introduced to the idea that I was here to complete a divine mission, by Rick Warren’s, the Purpose Driven Life in my teenage years.

I was fascinated with his approach to living a full life driven by reaching our full potential through spiritual development and our personal discernment.

Rick Warren’s book didn’t address this, but as I began to consider his teachings in each chapter and I began to appreciate this aspect of growth, I understood that I was on the way to purpose.

I became even more intrigued at how we do this, and recognized the need to be guided by the holy spirit and by embracing trial and error.

Of course, I’m not saying we all should simply do whatever we want or be less inclined to do what is right and call it growth, because God does hold us all to a standard and He requires us to be disciplined and follow his rules and laws but, I do recognize that God gives us grace and we should accept that divine gift, so that we can correct mistakes and build our spiritual muscles as overcomer’s in faith.

That doesn’t take away from our humanness, but it makes us conscientiously Christ-like in order to continue to walk toward our purpose on the journey of life.

Being human means that we make mistakes that may soil our images of perfection. After all, according to pop culture phenomenon Ed Sheeran, the world is looking for beautiful people.

We all want the perfect image, job, soulmate and life in order to live these lives of purpose or so we imagine.

However, Jesus himself wasn’t welcomed openly by the Pharisees or the Sadducees.

As a matter of fact, by all accounts, he should have been a carpenter like his father, Joseph, and should have never been in the temple other than perhaps to worship by presenting sacraments- the thing that he opposed openly and deemed as sacrilegious activity!

It is in this moment that Jesus shows his humanness and his divine nature, which had once mystified the priests and elders, takes a back seat to trial and error, where even he requires grace.

One would question why would Jesus oppose the order of the church when God requires obedience and there exists laws that govern the church, and government, when Jesus himself, was very stern in his stance to give unto Caesar what is Caesar’s according to Mark 12: 17.

In order to understand this, we must approach this with common sense, recognizing that the Pharisees and the Saducees were learned, holy men who had developed systems to administer the church.

This included tithing and sacraments that were obviously used for the up keep of these holy men.

During the time of Samuel, we see that the priest Eli took Samuel into his living accustom as he recognized Samuel’s divine nature but in his humanness Samuel refused to tell Eli what the Lord had spoken according to 1 Samuel 3: 16-18.

One can perceive that Samuel recognized his reliance on Eli to provide and protect him and thus on his way to purpose encountered trial and error.

One would say that Eli and the family dynamic Samuel had become part of were what is considered today a stumbling block to his purpose. When God gave the word, Samuel dare not speak it, but Eli was indeed ready to receive it.

We can also look to Joseph’s life, who, too, found out through trial and error that some things are better left unsaid.

Joseph should not have mentioned his dreams that exposed his divine nature to his biological family who sought to have him killed.

At the end of the consultation of his brother’s they decided to sell him into slavery for mere pocket change.

He later learned in Egypt that there are indeed different strokes for different folks and doing the right thing leads one to prison.

No activist or advocate spoke on behalf of Joseph, although the butler ultimately remembered him two years later, according to the needs of Pharoah and the butler’s own desire to win his favour.

Joseph’s divine nature only became relevant during Pharoah’s distress and in all his humanness, this divine nature was only needed after he was labelled an innocent convicted felon.

As we go back to Jesus, we will see that these holy men of different doctrine and privileges along with their disapproval was seemingly, of no consequence, as Jesus went on to begin his ministry, preaching and teaching to the Gentiles, a people considered vile and unclean and yet this didn’t take away from the impact Jesus’ ministry had on so many people inclusive of Christians who according to 1 Corinthians 1: 22-25 are embroiled in the foolish of God in their belief.