relationships,servants, love and all that falls between

 I don't want to be religious, I want a relationship. I go to church every Sunday like a faithful good religious girl, but where is the passion and the love in the word religion. Religion reminds me of self righteousness. Like, since I am a Christian, I am so much better than she is. I do not want to be labeled under the category of religion, because religion judges people, it puts people into categories. For example, Catholics, Christians, Muslims, Jews . . . you name it. Or, here's a good one: Penecostal, Baptist, Anglian, Lutheran, Charismatic . . . isn't that ridiculous? Do you really think that God cares? If I had to be religious, I would choose anything but. I would prefer a relationship. You see, the word relationship puts a whole different perspective on things. Relationship means that it is not a cold transaction every Sunday morning. Relationship means that passion and love are part of the equation. Religion, to me, means that it requires you to say a rosary, to do good things to get to Heaven. To go to Mecca on a pilgremage once in your life. To kneel on hard floor boards for hours.  I don't know about you, but I would prefer a kind and loving God, a God you can cry out to, who you can share everything with, who gives you dreams and visions and love, someone who is gracious and compassionate,  someone who accepts you as you are with no doubt in his mind as to how precious each of us are. Love. If I was an athiest, I would turn my nose at religious people, but look and see those who love others whole heartedly, who are not pushy and arrogant because they have "religion". I think that this was Jesus' point. He didn't look at the poor and the hungry and the prostitutes and turn his nose like the pharisees did. You see, the pharisees followed the book, the rules, they were religious . . .but Jesus, Jesus saw the good in everyone despite their circumstances, he saw the need to love people. Some people serve serve serve until they die, and the self righteous look at that and say, ha, they are wasting their time on the downtrodden, on the weary, on the drug users, on the alcoholics, on the prostitutes. We have a chance to  see the importance of loving people, for who they are, but until we get that, we are blind. But God, God does get it, he does, its impossible for him not to love us, but we can't grasp that because we are human, and as humans we have all these frailties, these insecurities, all these problems that we think we can't overcome. But God loves us just the same. And the people that serve, they get that, not because they completely understand God's love for them, but they realize the incredible grace and beauty that comes out of sharing what they know with others. I think servants have a bigger idea of what love is because in order to serve someone, you have to be able to love. Isn't that what all those stories we read subtly point at? About how that certain servant was the "lady of the house's" favorite servant simply because the servant loved, the servant served out of love (Hadassah from the Mark of the Lion books anyone) Believe me, people can tell the difference. People can tell whether you want to be there or not. So coming to the end of my mantra, anyone can be a servant. Anyone can love and serve from their hearts, it just takes time and reflection. And it takes you.