Jesus, Pixie Dust, and Plain Baked Potatoes
I really thought I was going to get in trouble a few weeks ago when I wrote about 'Hocus Pocus' Jesus. Thankfully, I didn't. I'm not sure why that is. I suspect it has more to do with people rolling their eyes and muttering, 'here she goes again' than their acceptance of my theories and my spirituality. I don't care either way, honestly. I'm not here to change minds (though I do like to open them) and I don't feel like I have anything to prove. As a friend of mine said recently, 'it's a free feeling'. I believe what I believe. I will witness, but I will not defend nor will I force my will. This is who I am, who I am called to be, and, above all, what I am called to do. So no, I won't apologize or ask forgiveness when I speak colorfully about Hocus Pocus Jesus or wax poetic about the 'pixie dust' Christianity uses to transform heathens into believers. I mean after all I eat my bagels and baked potatoes plain.
Maybe I should back up a little bit. Two decades ago, I was anorexic for nearly a decade. For the uninitiated, calories are the most prized possession of the anorexic. Each one is counted and has to count for something. When you only eat 700 calories or less per day (the average adult female should eat 1800-2200), you become very particular and meticulous. Sour cream, cream cheese, butter, cheese, mayonnaise, and other calorie (and fat) intense condiments become taboo. Therefore, plain carries the day. For example, you can eat a plain baked potato and use just 300 calories or you can eat a loaded one and use a day and a half worth of calories. The well-practiced anorexic saves where she (or he) can and wastes nothing. She is conscious of everything that goes in her mouth. It is counted and recounted, pondered and contemplated. Errors in judgement result in overwhelming guilt and require a purging. So, the 'pixie dust' that normal eaters add to food without thinking - the magical ranch dressing, butter, etc that make food more palatable and yummier - are completely lost on the anorexic. She prefers plain.
I have to say that even two decades later, I'm still a fan of plain. I don't count calories like I used to and I'm no longer concerned about everything counting for something, so it's not necessarily that old habits die hard. Being anorexic taught me to enjoy food, the actual food. A baked potato tastes good in and of itself. Most people don't know that because they load it up with everything and anything and never truly enjoy the actual potato. The same is true of a bagel. They have a unique flavor that doesn't need to be enhanced by cream cheese or butter or even jelly. Plain, in many cases, is actually better. And, if there was any Grace in the misery of anorexia, the discovery of plain was mine.
Most people don't get me. I get weird looks from waitresses, waiters, family members, and friends when I order things plain. 'You mean, like plain? With nothing on it?'. Yes, actually I do. No apologies there. I'm different and I embrace it. 98% of the Western world needs something extra - soy sauce, ranch dressing, salt, pico, cream cheese, chocolate sauce - to enhance their experience with food. Without all this 'pixie dust', food is hum-drum and far from magical.
And this is exactly why Christians must embrace Hocus-Pocus Jesus while I prefer plain-old Jesus the Man. People just don't dig hum-drum. Let's go back 2,000 years to the early days of a new religion called, 'Christianity'. Christians wanted to recruit more Christians. However, how do you entice people to change their minds about everything they've ever believed? You can't just say, 'Hey, there was this man who says that love is the key to our salvation. Come join us and you will be saved.' Riiiight. No thanks, I'm going to stick with what I've got. So what do you do? You make it magical, fanciful even. You sprinkle of bit of pixie dust and suddenly Jesus, the Man becomes Jesus, the Son of God, of virgin birth, crucified to save us all, risen, resurrected, and due to reappear magically at any moment. Plain doesn't attract followers, but amazing, larger-than-life sure does. And thus was born modern Christianity, amid all the pixie dust and hocus-pocus.
Then there is my Jesus. He was a man, much like I am a woman. He was a child of God, like you, me, and your Aunt Sally. He was mortal. He was conceived by a man and a woman. He was born. He lived. He died. And he was called by God to try to save the world with a message of love.
A man, a man, carried that cross on his back, endured the most heinous torture, hung from and died on that cross high on that hilltop. For his beliefs. For what he believed was right and good. For his love of God. For his love for us. I don't need pixie dust and magic to believe in the power of Jesus Christ. Jesus, the man, holds so much more for me than all the Christian hocus-pocus and pixie dust every could.
It is unfortunate that I am unable to be a Christian in the traditional sense. Christianity bases it's entire faith on the very things that undermine my faith and my belief. I need an alternate Christianity, one that places Jesus, an extraordinary yet ordinary man, his message, and his works, at the center of it's faith. While the lack of hocus-pocus and pixie dust will seem like blasphemy to Christians who believe The Word as it has been historically interpreted, my Christianity brings God and His Word to the masses and makes a truly personal relationship with God possible. If He came to Jesus, He just might come to each and every one of us. Of course, Jesus had a much higher calling the you, me, and your Aunt Sally, but he is proof that God puts his trust and faith in mere mortals. That seems pretty amazing to me. I encourage everyone to strip away the magic (and the sour cream) and try plain. You might just find that true essence is better than pixie dust.
Maybe I should back up a little bit. Two decades ago, I was anorexic for nearly a decade. For the uninitiated, calories are the most prized possession of the anorexic. Each one is counted and has to count for something. When you only eat 700 calories or less per day (the average adult female should eat 1800-2200), you become very particular and meticulous. Sour cream, cream cheese, butter, cheese, mayonnaise, and other calorie (and fat) intense condiments become taboo. Therefore, plain carries the day. For example, you can eat a plain baked potato and use just 300 calories or you can eat a loaded one and use a day and a half worth of calories. The well-practiced anorexic saves where she (or he) can and wastes nothing. She is conscious of everything that goes in her mouth. It is counted and recounted, pondered and contemplated. Errors in judgement result in overwhelming guilt and require a purging. So, the 'pixie dust' that normal eaters add to food without thinking - the magical ranch dressing, butter, etc that make food more palatable and yummier - are completely lost on the anorexic. She prefers plain.
I have to say that even two decades later, I'm still a fan of plain. I don't count calories like I used to and I'm no longer concerned about everything counting for something, so it's not necessarily that old habits die hard. Being anorexic taught me to enjoy food, the actual food. A baked potato tastes good in and of itself. Most people don't know that because they load it up with everything and anything and never truly enjoy the actual potato. The same is true of a bagel. They have a unique flavor that doesn't need to be enhanced by cream cheese or butter or even jelly. Plain, in many cases, is actually better. And, if there was any Grace in the misery of anorexia, the discovery of plain was mine.
Most people don't get me. I get weird looks from waitresses, waiters, family members, and friends when I order things plain. 'You mean, like plain? With nothing on it?'. Yes, actually I do. No apologies there. I'm different and I embrace it. 98% of the Western world needs something extra - soy sauce, ranch dressing, salt, pico, cream cheese, chocolate sauce - to enhance their experience with food. Without all this 'pixie dust', food is hum-drum and far from magical.
And this is exactly why Christians must embrace Hocus-Pocus Jesus while I prefer plain-old Jesus the Man. People just don't dig hum-drum. Let's go back 2,000 years to the early days of a new religion called, 'Christianity'. Christians wanted to recruit more Christians. However, how do you entice people to change their minds about everything they've ever believed? You can't just say, 'Hey, there was this man who says that love is the key to our salvation. Come join us and you will be saved.' Riiiight. No thanks, I'm going to stick with what I've got. So what do you do? You make it magical, fanciful even. You sprinkle of bit of pixie dust and suddenly Jesus, the Man becomes Jesus, the Son of God, of virgin birth, crucified to save us all, risen, resurrected, and due to reappear magically at any moment. Plain doesn't attract followers, but amazing, larger-than-life sure does. And thus was born modern Christianity, amid all the pixie dust and hocus-pocus.
Then there is my Jesus. He was a man, much like I am a woman. He was a child of God, like you, me, and your Aunt Sally. He was mortal. He was conceived by a man and a woman. He was born. He lived. He died. And he was called by God to try to save the world with a message of love.
A man, a man, carried that cross on his back, endured the most heinous torture, hung from and died on that cross high on that hilltop. For his beliefs. For what he believed was right and good. For his love of God. For his love for us. I don't need pixie dust and magic to believe in the power of Jesus Christ. Jesus, the man, holds so much more for me than all the Christian hocus-pocus and pixie dust every could.
It is unfortunate that I am unable to be a Christian in the traditional sense. Christianity bases it's entire faith on the very things that undermine my faith and my belief. I need an alternate Christianity, one that places Jesus, an extraordinary yet ordinary man, his message, and his works, at the center of it's faith. While the lack of hocus-pocus and pixie dust will seem like blasphemy to Christians who believe The Word as it has been historically interpreted, my Christianity brings God and His Word to the masses and makes a truly personal relationship with God possible. If He came to Jesus, He just might come to each and every one of us. Of course, Jesus had a much higher calling the you, me, and your Aunt Sally, but he is proof that God puts his trust and faith in mere mortals. That seems pretty amazing to me. I encourage everyone to strip away the magic (and the sour cream) and try plain. You might just find that true essence is better than pixie dust.
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