Do You Eat and Drink With Sinners?

Hopefully the answer is yes. Let me explain.

What I have learned about trying to follow the teachings of Jesus is that as our faith evolves so do our relationships with others. We begin life by trying to run with the crowd, to fit in, to be accepted. Life is about comparing ourselves to others, making the list, or making the grade. We measure our successes by winning and losing.

We then progress to a stage where just winning isn’t enough. For some of us, who have become use to success, the failures are more painful and the victories begin to feel hollow. We realize that there is always someone better or at least just as good. We realize that there is always someone waiting to dethrone us, take our title or break our record. Winning is not enough, we now strive to become legendary. For others of us this is the stage when we realize that we don’t fit in, no matter how hard we try. We’ll never be popular or win awards. We begin to feel ordinary in a culture where “ordinary”, “average” and “plain Jane” is not good enough. When we try to run with the crowd and try to do the same things that everyone else does it just doesn’t feel right. Instead of having fun we just feel guilty.

We then move to a stage of realizing that we have to separate ourselves from others in order to find our own identities. This is the stage when, as Christians, we come to understand that if our lives were a performance, we would only be performing for an audience of one. We also realize that the most important image of ourselves is not found in a piece of reflective glass hanging on a wall, but rather in the words or scripture. At this stage when we begin to put human relationships in perspective. We begin to clearly distinguish between acquaintances, associates, comrades, friends, and family both those connected to us by common ancestry and those connected to us by spirit.

And finally, if we are lucky, we graduate to a stage in which no matter what situation we find ourselves in, who we around, or what they are doing, we can remain true to who we are and what we believe. We still need to separate ourselves from time to time, just as Jesus did. However at this stage our lives are now longer limited by a set or rules and regulations of what to eat, drink, where to go and with whom to eat and drink.

So if you look around this website and see links to horse racing venues don’t jump to conclusions. I simply appreciate the beauty and athleticism of racehorses. My love of horses is an interest, which I share with millions of people around the world, but it does not define everything that I am.