Peace Be With You!

Happy Passover and Good Friday to you All,

Now, I am Christian and my husband is Jewish. It really doesn't cause a conflict because I am more of a spiritual person and Jesse isn't very religious. Though he sticks to some of his traditions as I do mine.

Tonight is the first night of Passover and we are having our first Seder in Costa Rica! I love it...cheap wine, a good story and good times with friends. Over the years I have come to look forward to Passover. Jesus had attended 33 Passovers and I think I'm up to 13.

I am a Christian in the sense I am guided by the teachings of Jesus. Did he save me? I don't know? What I do believe is this: he has taught me how to live life, and how to handle obstacles that have come up on my journey. I'm forever grateful for his presence in my life and the love he has so freely given me.

Today, we celebrate Good Friday, the day he was hung on the cross. Catholics tend on Easter Sunday to be ever celebrating how he died for his sins. Protestants celebrate the Arisen Christ!

Now, I was brought up Catholic and Jesus always confused me. I never fully understood the story of his death because in CCD (Catholic Sunday School), they didn't teach the bible. When I was in a 12 step program, I was fortunate enough to take the steps as was done in the original AA group. I had the most profound spiritual experience in that I felt the love of God surround me.

Once in the program, I went back to church. After this experience, I started to questioning things I heard about Jesus. Being Catholic, "He died for our sins" was planted in my brain. I don't like the word sin at all! We are human and we make mistakes.

I think he died because people couldn't believe in the miracle of God and his teachings. They were all so afraid. It was our fear and lack of faith that killed Jesus. His forgiveness is what struck me. Being an addict, I wondered how could God forgive me? And where can I begin to forgive myself?

Well, Jesus forgave us, right? "Father, they know not what they do?" I believe he forgave us, because of his great love for us. But I also think he was saying "If I can forgive you, you can forgive you!"

We are all critical and hard on ourselves. One of the things that we find hard is for us to really love ourselves completely. Jesus went up on that cross so we can learn to embrace who we are.

Happy Passover and Happy Easter to You All!!

Chao,
Gina