Look at the big picture! The mystics of all religions say the same thing. We are One. Jesus warned his best buds, “Whatever you do to those you consider least, you do to me.”  We are all part of one whole.    Jesus grew from tribalism , his people were God’s only people, to universal love. From thinking he only came for the Jews to, “Go teach all nations.” Jesus grew from violence against the money changers to loving his enemies, even those that tortured and killed him, “Father, forgive them, they know not what they do.” Jesus grew from doubt to acceptance, “My God why have you forsaken me!” to “Into your hands I put my spirit.”              Aren’t these part of any spiritual journey?                                                                                  I’m in a class at my church where we discussed whether our faith would be shattered if the provable bones of Jesus were found. Mine wouldn’t, because I have experienced the presence of Jesus and his overwhelming love that gave me incredible joy even though I was in excruciating physical pain. While praising God with joy though still in pain, I fell asleep and when I awoke, I was healed.            Jesus is my way.  In my fifty years of a relationship with Jesus I have experienced numerous miracles of answered prayer mixed with times of great heartbreak in between. I have experienced forgiveness and love beyond understanding. I have experienced the presence of Jesus several times. But as I have grown in my spiritual journey there have been changes in both my understanding and in my faith. Times of pain unhealed and my mother’s dying by inches for fourteen years with Alzheimer’s have challenged me to trust without seeing. But I can also look back to my years of agnosticism and see the footprints of God. There are people obviously filled with the spirit of God who do not experience Jesus as savior, like Mahatma Gandhi.  But he not only valued Jesus, he actually followed his way. To me if someone follows God’s way that was fleshed out in Jesus, they have let him be Lord, which is a lot harder than accepting him as Savior.  I personally was very needy and I needed to experience Jesus as Savior, for the grace to grow into letting him be Lord.  I’m still here at eighty-four perhaps to share my journey, but probably to grow better at letting him be Lord. I’m old, but God isn’t finished with me yet.                                         The spiritual journey, whether with Jesus or not, is the same. None of us know the whole truth, nothing but the truth. That would make us equal to God! We all have some of the pieces to the puzzle. It’s tragic that we can’t put them together. The Jewish prophet, Micah, says: “What does God require of us? To do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God.”  Many agnostics do justice. Many believers love kindness. Some of each do both. But all of us have trouble with the walking humbly part.