MCLEODS, New Brunswick, October 21, 2023 – We all come into relationship with God and Jesus in our own unique way. No two conversions are the same. Some are sudden, unexpected, and out of the blue (like mine or Paul’s), some happen slowly over a period of years before reaching the rebirth tipping point, and the rest fall somewhere in between. But once converted, we’re all on the same path and walking the same Way that leads Home.

Being on the path, we’re all expected to make the same decisions that Jesus made during his time on Earth. We dare not veer to the left or to the right: We need to walk straight on. Mind you, we could veer to the left or to the right, if we wanted to; we still have free will. But we’ll pay the price for it. Do that enough, and you never want to do it again.

Do that more than enough, and you’ll lose your grace.

I’ve been on the path now for over 24 years. Just like everyone who’s born-again comes to God and Jesus in his or her own unique way, we who are on the path walk it in our own unique way. That’s not to say that we don’t follow Jesus’ commands and teachings. Walking the path in our unique way doesn’t mean we’re blaspheming or turning from God. Far from it. That’s just to say that none of us is the same despite having the same Spirit and heading for the same destination.

We’re not robots or drones. God doesn’t want robots and drones, he wants children – living, breathing children who love him and do his will not because they’re threatened or forced or programmed to do it, but because they simply want to do it, like Jesus did during his time here. My relationship with God is not like Jesus’ relationship with God because I’m not Jesus. Not being Jesus, I love God differently. I love God like I love God, and he loves me differently than he loves Jesus, but in the same measure. He loves me as much as he loves Jesus, just differently. He wouldn’t be our Heavenly Father – the Living God – if he didn’t love each of us differently but in the same measure. His love is as living as he is.

I thank God that he lets me walk the Way as me, Charlotte, and doesn’t expect me to be someone else. I thank God that he not only allows me to be me but encourages me to be me. If we’re not walking the path authentically as ourselves, we’re not walking the path. We’re spinning our wheels or maybe even sliding backwards.

When I was first born-again, I thought I had to change the way I dressed or the way I interacted with people, that I had to say certain things to them that I wouldn’t otherwise say. God let me roll with that for a while (thank God, it was a mercifully short while) until I realized that not being me is not what God expects of me. I don’t know why God chose me; I just thank God that he did. But he chose me, Charlotte, not The Born-Again Person Formerly Known As Charlotte. He chose me in all my glory and all my flaws.

We need to deeply understand that in following Jesus, we don’t mimic Jesus. We keep his commands, we learn the lessons he taught us, but we remain true to who we are as unique individuals. We come to God uniquely and we walk the path uniquely because we are unique and genuinely one of a kind. God made us that way. Still, Jesus is our example, as Paul put it, so when it comes to making decisions, we base them on what Jesus taught us.

As born-again believers, we don’t become Jesus. We remain true to God by remaining true to ourselves, true to how God made us, each of us unique and different from everyone else.

As born-again believers, we don’t become Jesus: We follow Jesus.

And in following Jesus, we make our way Home.