An open letter to my friends unsure about God

I recently wrote this open letter to my spiritually unsure/seeking/agnostic friends who follow my primary blog at www.rebelpilgrim.blogspot.com. After writing it, I realized that many of the themes embedded in Between Two Kingdoms resonated throughout. Here is the entire original post below:

I have lots of friends all over the world who read this blog. Many are self-identified Christians, but some are not. I often wonder what my I-have-more-questions-about-God-than-answers friends think about my more God-centered posts. I thought I would write a post tonight for them. (I’m talking about my actual real-life friends who read this – not cyber eavesdroppers. You all know who you are. We’ve talked about this stuff at 2 a.m. in bars across America over the last decade. For whatever reason you are all on my mind tonight.)

First of all, I want you guys to know that I didn’t become your friend to try to convert you. I know you all know that, but it is true. I respect you and your spiritual journey. Nothing is gonna ever change that.

Second, I would want you to know that my faith – though rooted in Jesus and the Christian tradition – likely has some substantial differences to cultural Christianity. If you know me, you have likely sensed that already. This is intentional on my part. I am not trying to be the Christian who shocks people or anything like that. I’m trying to follow Jesus as I understand him. Jesus himself came off as anti-religious a lot, and I sometimes do the same.

The Brick Wall: A Kingdom Parable

Then Jesus started preaching, “Turn back to God! The kingdom of heaven will soon be here.” – Matthew 4:17 (CEV)

Imagine a brick wall.

What you are imagining is not nearly big enough. Imagine yourself standing in front of a massive brick wall. Now, look to the right. The brick wall continues as far as you can see. Now look to the left. It has no end. Look up. As far as you can see – past the clouds and into outer space. The brick wall never ends.

Now imagine that this brick wall is real. And that it exists in the future. This is the wall that separates the past and the present from the future. Behind the wall exists Heaven. Heaven is a good place and you’d like to be there. What little we know of Heaven is mysterious, but we know that it is a good place – no death, no mourning, no crying, no pain. God reigns in Heaven with a loving rule. Heaven has the power to heal.