"If you want a good burger, you've got to try Rockwell's Neighborhood Grill. A good sandwich? Costello's for sure! And I love HarvesTime for fresh produce, meats and cheeses (try a Honeycrisp apple while you're there). Oh, and if you want some good healing and teaching, make sure to check out Jesus."

Who is Jesus? I'm not talking in society-wide terms. I just mean for me. For Dave Sandell. Who is Jesus? I have a close relationship with God. We talk. We spend time together. But Jesus...

About two months ago I was reflecting on the way others talk about Jesus - as their Savior. Their healer. Their friend and king. And those words didn't resonate with me. I slowly realized that to me, Jesus was a product. No different than Pepsi or Apple. One of my favorite products to be sure, but a product nonetheless. He was a character in a book. A more meaningful Harry Potter. He symbolized something beautiful and God-sized, but He wasn't real. He was a symbol. A concept. An idea.

Can I know him as more than that? When I die, can I meet him and get the feeling that, even as I bow down before him, on some level we're actually old friends meeting face-to-face at last? If I died today, that wouldn't be my experience.

I wanted to meet the real Jesus. I've met him before, but it had been so long that he had faded into my memory, summoned up whenever I need to invoke his name in prayer. So I made a simple change. I told God that for the month of September, I wouldn't be praying to him. Instead, I was going to direct my prayers towards Jesus. And friends, it's been pretty incredible. I don't know that I have words yet to describe this experience other than to say that it's October, and I've told God I'm going to take one more month because I'm enjoying this so much.

What have we talked about? Well, lately he's been showing me what it means to be poor in spirit...

More soon...

Labels: Jesus