The Twelfth Step

I had a strange experience recently that I thought might be an answer to one of the prayers I put out to God a good while ago, but in the end only reminded me of something I choose to call “The Christian Box”.

The experience I’m speaking of began one afternoon when I was sitting at a coffee shop talking to someone who was considering me to be their sponsor in recovery from alcohol and drug addiction. Suddenly, in the middle of my conversation with them, a thirty-something guy approached and said he was sorry for overhearing our discussion surrounding God, but that it sounded like something he wanted to hear more about. He then handed me his number and said if I felt comfortable, to give him a call sometime and maybe we could talk a little more about my spiritual journey.

I was immediately pumped when this happened because I had been praying for some time about God bringing new friendships into my life that would be open to talking about the many multifaceted ways I believe God is present on this planet. Unfortunately, most of the people I currently know haven’t been that interested in discussing things like this, hence the reason for this long-standing prayer.

So, when I actually made the phone call later that day to this individual, I talked for a few minutes and made plans to meet up with them for an afternoon meal about a week later. When the day arrived for that meal, I must say I was somewhat excited about the possibility of finally having someone in my life locally who loved exploring spirituality as much as I do. But I’m sad to say that an hour later, things turned out quite differently.

Initially as we began eating, he talked happily about his wife while I did the same with my partner. Everything seemed to go topsy-turvy after that though. He told me he was a Christian and felt the Bible was 100% the truth of God and began asking me questions that ultimately felt like I was being put on the defensive. In all honesty, it reminded me quite a bit of the many conversations I’ve had in the past with other Christians, who were never able to see outside The Christian Box, as I call it.

Why I call it this is for the mere reality that so many Christians feel the only truth is what’s in the Bible. And if it’s not in the Bible, then it’s not the truth. As for me these days, God never has and never will live in a box, which is precisely what I told him. I also told him I believe that God created me and my sexuality, and that it wasn’t a mistake nor a sin. I followed that in saying I felt the path to God can come through many other ways as well, from other religions to other forms of spiritual practice.

Needless to say, none of that went over so well.

But I’ve learned over the years not to get into debates with someone who appears to be a very strongly-opinionated Christian, because it never turns out well. So instead, I just listened. I listened to what he had to say about the church he attends weekly, about his belief that the only way to God is through Christ and that any other will only lead to destruction. I even listened with an open heart when he asked if I ever prayed to God to take the gay away, although he didn’t quite put it in those terms.

Regardless, I remained a good sport throughout the entire time I spent with this guy, because I truly feel that God is in every single human being on this planet. In other words, I looked at him as an extensive of God like I do with everyone else nowadays, even when their viewpoints may be completely different from mine. It was somewhat sad though to observe a person who said they were hungry and exploring a deeper relationship with God go from that to talking about the same things I always seem to talk about when I speak with extremely devout Christians.

Look, I’m a Christian, but I also consider myself a Buddhist, a Spiritualist, a lover of nature, and so much more. I see God in far more today than just what the Bible speaks to. And as many know with me, I don’t feel the Bible is 100% accurate. It was written over 2000 years ago and been interpreted over and over again to make the versions we see today. None of us lived back in Jesus’s time, thus I take the Bible today as part of my spiritual guidance in life, just not the sole truth.

The sole truth is something that’s ever-expanding with me, one that has led me to believe there are multiple lives each of our souls live, one that has involved me exploring the truths in things such as numerology and tarot for example, and one that has shown me there are infinite paths to God, with Christ being just one of them.

While I may proclaim Christ as my Lord and Savior, I cannot and will not ever put that on someone else, because I’m not God and I don’t know the spiritual path that God has chosen for every single person on this planet. What’s worked for me in my exploration for the love of God may not work for someone else, and that’s the sole reason why I don’t live in the Christian Box anymore, because for me it feels far too claustrophobic.

The bottom line for me is that if God is in everything, then maybe Christians and everyone else for that matter who thinks their religion is the only way to God, might want to start thinking that God could be present in a whole heck of a lot more than just what they currently believe…

Peace, love, light, and joy,

Andrew Arthur Dawson