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I AM a Follower of Jesus

  • Elliott
  • November 14, 2013
  • 5

I have kept a file for some time of quotes that speak to me but which are too long to share on Twitter. Sometimes I share these quotes on Facebook and sometimes I use them to stimulate a posting to Secrets to Peace. It is my intention to start sharing, via Secrets more often. This month I have been writing a novel, as a part of NaNoWriMo an organization dedicated to helping authors get their voices heard, so I have not really had a lot of extra time to post anything.  I intend to start writing daily, again, starting January 1st of the new year.

Today I want to share a short writing by Eric Ashford. I received it at some point in an email. The email had a link in it to a blog, hosted at Blogger.com sites, but it is no longer maintained.

JESUS

I am a secret follower of yours.
Not the kind that are known
by a name you never pronounced.

Not the kind that raise   christ statue
icons of your torture
and call that worship                  

their love.

I did not kill you
nor does my soul depend
upon your forgiveness.

I am a follower in the sense
that the earth is a follower of the sun.
I follow your laughter and
the gift of your manhood.
Your gentle strength
and the way you loved women.
The way you healed
by seeing no illness.

I follow your silent reply
when they questioned you:

That silence still rings loudest.   

I and you are a secret,                    
I know you as I know myself;
my living breath is your temple.

I follow you Jesus
like the lofty hawk follows
the gospel of the wind.

                  –Eric Ashford

I share this because it closely approximates how I define my own love of Jesus. To me Jesus is my wayshower and my mentor. He is not some unique divine son born because of some miraculous intervention between God and a virgin, that myth has been reported all throughout recorded history.

What Jesus is to me is a man who discovered that divinity was his TRUE nature. His teaching is that each and every one of us is also capable of discovering and claiming the same Truth about our being.

The only True religion is LOVE. Jesus knew this and Jesus taught it. All of the parables, which survived Constantinople’s Nicean Council’s cleansing, teach this.

I love the Jesus who lives in my heart and soul. I am a follower of that man who discovered the Truth of Truths. If he were to show up today, he would not be recognized, nor would he recognize the churches which hate in his name or which teach that everyone is born a sinner.

Jesus’s teachings are the gift he offered the world, not his death. He was killed because he was too powerful. It wasn’t part of some divine plan. Humans never needed him to die for their sins. What a silly concept that is.

It was Jesus’s power that led to his death. He became a miracle worker and disregarded civil law when it suited him. The existing politicians feared this powerful man who challenged their authority. It was for that reason they killed him.

Yet even sentenced to death, he continued to demonstrate Love!

That is the Jesus I speak with.

That is the Jesus who lives in my heart.

That is the Jesus I strive to emulate.

Thank you Eric Ashford for sharing this beautiful prose. I dare say, by acknowledging how it resonates in my heart, that it speaks to many other Lovers as well. Wherever you are, know that you are loved and appreciated.

Final Note: After checking more on the web I did finally find Eric Ashford’s poetry on a couple of sites. The one which apparently belongs to him is: http://truevisionpoetry.blogspot.com/

5 comments

  1. LOVE the poem! Particularly love this section of your post: “What Jesus is to me is a man who discovered that divinity was his TRUE nature. His teaching is that each and every one of us is also capable of discovering and claiming the same Truth about our being.
    The only True religion is LOVE. Jesus knew this and Jesus taught it. All of the parables, which survived Constantinople’s Nicean Council’s cleansing, teach this.” Chills! YES!

    I had very similar thoughts when reading this morning’s ACIM lesson:
    In me salvation’s means and end are one (Jesus showed the way).
    In me, God’s holy Son, are reconciled all parts of Heaven’s plan to save the world. What could conflict, when all the parts have but one purpose and one aim? How could there be a single part that stands alone, or one of more or less importance than the rest? I am the means by which God’s Son is saved, because salvation’s purpose is to find the sinlessness that God has placed in me. I was created as the thing I seek. I am the goal the world is searching for. I am God’s Son, His one eternal Love. I am salvation’s means and end as well.
    Let me today, my Father, take the role You offer me in Your request that I accept Atonement for myself. For thus does what is thereby reconciled in me become as surely reconciled to You.
    I thank Jesus for showing the way, and say YES please, I humbly and gratefully accept this Truth and the freedom it brings – help me, Holy Spirit, to do my part in every choice I make…And so it is! Amen!!

  2. Elliott,

    EricAshford wrote about the Jesus that I know! I remember a few years ago when I started this spiritual path, what I was “shown” was that I am here ONLY to give and receive the Love that we have running in us, through us and around us. The Jesus I know, was here to show us that Love and how to give/receive it. It appears that we humans have come to believe that only Jesus was given that ability even though he told us that we could do the same things that he was able to do and even more.

    I just read Eve’s comments and realized that I am saying the same things in a little different way.

    I want to thank you and tell you how much I love and appreciate you. You are a true blessing to all of us. Please keep writing!

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