Having a Beer With Jesus

I made a recent friend.  She told me some of her life story.  Hearing others’ stories has become such a sacred rite to me.  Perhaps there is nothing more valuable one has than their story.  To get to share in that is an inviation into a sacred moment.

She spoke of how the church had hurt her in her life.  I felt deep pain with her.  I wish there was more I could do.  Several days later, i realized there was.  Borrowing from Donald Miller’s Blue Like Jazz, where some Christians set up a reverse confessional, where others could come and, instead of confessing their sins, could receive an apology for the sins the church had committed.

I wrote my friend a note several days later.  I apologized for how she had been treated.  Although it wasn’t me personally, I’m working within that system that has hurt her so.  The apology felt good to me.  I wasn’t sure how it would be received, and I soon realized that mattered little.  To apologize for the guilt of my past that I feel, and how I have hurt others in my former religious zeal, was one of the most liberating acts I have ever performed.  I initially apologized hoping it would help her.  It mostly helped me.

I’m very slow to be impressed with an advertisement by a corporation in this capitalitist economy.  My assumption is that, as is a basic tenet of capitalism, a corporation is acting in its own best interest, primarily that it seeks more dollars.  However, Kleenex has launched an advertising campaign that I think may be quite helpful despite their economic motivations.

Their slogan is simply “Let it Out”

For me, Kleenex investing in advertising is just shy of pointless.  When someone needs something to wipe their nose with, they don’t ask for a facial tissue.  They ask for a Kleenex.

That being said, how wonderful that a corporation is perpetuating such a healthy activity.  My experience in this lifetime has been the reverse message: “Take It In”.  The way to live life was to become indoctrinated with the right teachings, find the right personality to lead you, and discover the philosophy that is going to make you better.  We are constantly being sold that each product, author, pill, and plan is going to make our lives better.  All we have to do is follow it.  All we have to do is “Take It In”.

If we’re constantly taking stuff in and not letting stuff out as well, we may become terribly imbalanced.  My journey as a human and a Christian have been bombarded with the messages of, “Here!  Just take this in and you’ll be right.”  That has led to my own imbalance.  Eventually, I had to “Let It Out.”  My experience with God is a dialogue, a two way street of messages.  For many years, I spent my energies waiting to take in the right stuff in order that I might be right.  All the time, I was neglecting the dialogical relationship of myself and the Divine.  The difference was felt when I truly engaged God with all that I am.  It all changed when I voiced to God my love, hate, appreciation, disappointment, anger, sadness, wishes, and hopelessness.  It all changed when I “Let it Out.”