‘’Christianity isn’t the highest path,’’ someone wrote on one of my posts yesterday. The choice of language got me thinking. I never have and never would use that kind of language to describe Christianity. I’d call it the true path instead.
Why do we talk in terms of higher and lower spiritual paths? Earlier that day, I received a comment about how people gravitate towards Christianity because they are less evolved spiritually. I’m pretty certain that I would have agreed in the past, if I hadn’t have become a Christian myself.
It all goes back to the Garden of Eden. Everything was perfect, but Satan offered Eve an opportunity she couldn’t resist, to eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil, so that she could become ‘like god.’
Now we see the consequences playing out in our society. We are living in a time of explosion in knowledge in technology where it is possible to grow a baby in an artificial womb, and change the God-given genetic code of humans. Is it for good, or is it for evil? People have different opinions, but one thing’s for sure, we all get to explore how that fruit tastes, whether darkness or light.
And so spirituality has become infused with a sense of attempting to be god-like. It’s seen less and less as about finding an objective truth about the spiritual realm, but more about how high we can go, on the road to enlightenment, on the ascension into 5D.
As a culture we have been so indoctrinated in the idea that spirituality is some kind of superiority contest, that it is hard to comprehend the Christian message, that we are saved by the grace of God, rather than by what we do.
Saying that Jesus is the only way is often met with accusations of dogmatism, arrogance, and even, bizarrely as I read yesterday; narcissism.
In our society we have been programmed to think of belief as being part of personal identity, kind of like fashion sense. If we tell someone that their belief is wrong, then it’s a bit like saying they look bad.
Seen from this perspective Christians might look like narcissists who adore their beautiful clothing, while looking down on the rags of others. (maybe there are some who don’t truly embody the fruits of the spirit do this).
But in reality the Christian and non-Christian views of spirituality are like different languages. And people can’t comprehend the language of Christianity if they don’t learn it.
It doesn’t take anything clever or fancy to become a Christian. We don’t need to spend thousands of pounds to purify our diet so toxins don’t effect our consciousness. We don’t need to do a million complex yoga poses. We aren’t special or different. It’s just that one day we realised that we couldn’t do it alone. We realised that eating from the tree of knowledge wasn’t as much fun as our ancestors thought it might have been, that it led to death and destruction and a whole lot of pain. One day we decided that we were going to learn to acknowledge our own mistakes and the role we have played in the sad story of humanity’s downfall. For that we got a place reserved for us in God’s heavenly kingdom. Not because we were special, but because we acknowledged our brokenness.
I know that’s a hard thing to do. In a world where we experience so much trauma and pain, where we so often need support to build our self-esteem and go confidently out into the world, the idea that we declare ourselves to be a messed-up sinner, seems harmful. But to do this doesn’t mean wallowing in self-hatred, which is a distorted, satanic version of the story. It’s about being free and liberated by Christ, who died as a sacrifice of our sins, so that we can give him our heavy burdens.
So no Christianity, isn’t the highest path, but it isn’t a lower one either, unless you call humbling yourself to admit you’re a sinner low.
God himself, humbled himself, as the son of God, born into an everyday family, washing the feet of his disciples, dying on an old, rugged cross, for the sake of his children.
It’s not a story of being superior. It’s one of love.