Disembodied Jesus
by Maxie Kamalski
I am currently reading an amazing book by a friend, Tom Smith, entitled Raw Spirituality. It’s one of those books that has already stopped me in my tracks – and I’m still in the introduction!
Tom shares about his experience being raised in a church culture where you accept Jesus into your heart, and yet the body keeps going on its own way. Somehow we have lost the fact that Jesus not only lives in our hearts, but into our bodies, and thus all aspects of our lives. If Jesus is simply in our hearts, it allows for systems of evil and oppression to wreck our world. I can completely identify with this perspective.
How easy it is to forget that a life transformed by Jesus cannot merely remain in our hearts and heads. It must be made visible. Jesus has to live outward from our bodies and not remain “stuck” within our hearts.
Finding Jesus living in more than your heart alone is where true spirituality begins. That’s where the Spirit of God and your spirit intersect, when it moves beyond a mere personal experiences to a shared love.
Here I stand convicted. It’s so easy to segregate my ‘good and holy intentions’ from the reality of my actions. I can say all the right words but live out all the wrong ones. I can say I care for those in under-resourced communities, but I have not spent any time in those neighbourhoods recently; I can say that I love my neighbor, but can’t remember the last time I did something kind for them, simply to show them love?
The challenge for me is to live out Jesus beyond what is in my heart. How can I live out Jesus into my every day moments? How can I make him visible to those around me? How do I allow the Jesus in my heart live out into the rest of my life?
May you be aware of Jesus not only in your heart this week, but allow him to transform your actions as well. May His love be made visible through your heart and life.