I was raised fundamentalist Christian. As a result of studying the Bible and Church history, I became Catholic. But my questioning mind could never leave well enough alone. I spent many years studying the various World Religions.
I am always the sort to actually listen to others, including on forums. My participation in religion forums raised many questions in my mind. I had posted in a forum that origins were important to me, and that I had become Catholic because I found it to be the closest and most connected to the early church. I had taken a step back in time to reach that. An Orthodox Jewish woman sent me a simple post saying, "Take one more step back." It got under my skin.
I was, over time, presented with Jewish takes on various Bible passages, and found, to my surprise, that the Jewish understanding simply made more sense. It became clear to me that there was a serious problem in that Jesus didn't fulfill the prophecies the messiah will fulfill.
One day, I was driving down the freeway and saw a bumper sticker that proclaimed "Jesus is God." I had a moment of insight as I realized that this statement made no more sense than saying This Rock is God, or That Tree is God.
And so commenced an inner battle that lasted for years and years. You see, I loved Jesus with all my heart. I talked to him. I had a "relationship" with him. And I loved being a Christian -- my love had been highly meaningful as a believer. It was a battle between what my head said, that Christianity was false, and what my heart said, that Christianity meant all to me.
Eventually I realized that the "Jesus" I had known and loved was not Jesus at all. I had put a face and name on God. It was what Judaism calls Shituf, or association. But it was God all along and not Jesus that I had loved and served and had a relationship with. In the conflict between head and heart, I had to decide in favor of Judaism, since I simply no longer believed the Christian understanding, and could not bring myself back into that belief (and believe you me, I tried). Christianity is, after all, a belief based religion -- if you don't believe, you are not a Christian.
It was very very painful to lose my Christian beliefs. There were times I felt like I was just in free fall. But Judaism was the safety net that caught me.
While all this was going on, I developed quite an affinity for the people of Israel. I had dreams that I was Jewish. I simply resonated with Jewish issues and Jewish culture. I wished I were part of this People.
All of this led me to become a Jew and give up Christianity.