Occasionally, someone will say to me that they wish they could meet Jesus.

I’m not so sure about that.

First off, I’m not entirely certain I’d recognize him and even if I did, I've got a pretty good hunch I wouldn’t like all he had to say.

But most importantly, if Jesus were still around, I suspect we would all be running to him for everything instead of developing our own independence, our own abilities, our own sense of self.

George Buttrick once said,

"Jesus came not to make us people of blind obedience but rather people empowered by the Holy Spirit to live our lives with a God-inspired free-will."

That is the mark of a maturing spirituality.