Stolen Jesus by Jami Amerine

Author:Jami Amerine
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780736970648
Publisher: Harvest House Publishers

At our house, we say, “Failure is an option.” Failure is a place where we learn. Failure is a place where we cry out from our brokenness and experience Real Jesus. Embracing failure, admitting confusion, is the opposite of everything you might have known. But it is a utopia, where you see with fresh eyes as your mind is renewed. A confused space where you question how you got where you are and where you have been. Failure is an option, and confusion is a blessing.

If I never fail, I will never seek improvement. If I am never confused, I will not find clarity. If I am never lost, I need not be found. If I am not hungry, I do not need to be fed. If I do not grieve, then I cannot be comforted.

And perhaps that is the hardest part of this journey, admitting failure and embracing the emotions that follow closely behind. In the back of my mind, I knew I had lived my “faith” in various stages between “lukewarm” and “Texas Chainsaw Massacre.” The flippancy by which I attributed failure to my Weight Watchers debacles seemed minimal compared to failing to understand the Savior I had verbally gushed over for the better part of forty years. So, after the dismantling of all the false Jesuses that night in the living room, I needed to grieve.

And I wanted to grieve this. I wanted to grieve the time I had missed out on Him, the Real Him.

I had to face the wasted time. The time I had professed a love of Jesus and been terrified of His crazy yet imaginary wrath. I was laid out, partially relieved and partly grief stricken. Getting to know Him hurt, and unearthing old injuries cut.

At the feet of Jesus, there is an abundance of wisdom about who He really is. The complexities never stop surprising me. But the simplicity I was unearthing was too good to be true and I had questions:

Why did He cry when Lazarus died? Knowing He could and would bring Him back to life, why was He sad?

How could He be hungry and not succumb to temptation but still identify with us?

Why did He pick Judas?

And what about the parable of the talents (Matthew 25:14-30)? Basically, He applauded the act of investing your money, and then later He told the rich man to sell all of his things.

The last shall be first?

The first shall be last?

Cut out your eye, do not hate, cut off your hand? These were the words that most confused me. One moment He was burying me under the law, the next He proclaimed I was free from it. Like Kim, I was full of questions. And she taught me that those questions were okay.

And I went to look for the answers in the place God promised He would be, the place He promised to reveal Himself: Scripture. But not in the way I had in the past. For the first time, I would start from the beginning of the story and work my way through.

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