I have struggled quite a lot with expressing my faith outwardly on a public forum. At first it was about acceptance and potential judgment and you know...being an on fire Christian is not always a popular thing. But that fear has been set aside. It is who I am. I live, eat, breath...Jesus. And I'm grateful for the freedom to express that.
I watched a short snipit of 'Trading Spouses' last night before I put thy lovely to bed. A Christian mama was traded with an 'alternative lifestyle' mama and I was frustrated and amazed at the same time with this episode. First...the Christian mama...is the reason why Christianity is so unpopular. Judgment reigned. She tried to press her beliefs onto the family she was visiting and the young boy (he must have been around 9?) was visibly disturbed by her. The amazing thing is that the alternative Dad, the one you might EXPECT to be judgmental and harsh, was completely accepting of her and cried when he couldn't understand what was distressing his son so much. He wanted him to accept her and give her a chance. WOW. The Lord works in mysterious ways, but just because we have Jesus doesn't mean we have some superior authority over the lives of others. And just because someone looks differently on the outside doesn't mean they are awful human beings. We are all God's children. Individual and different and valuable all the same. It hurts my heart to see/watch people hurting each other. LOVE one another.
I accidentally bumped into a website yesterday that shocked me. A man who has been a Christian for 23 years decided to unravel his faith and the faith of his family, and become athiest. I can't wrap my brain around that decision. Because walking with Jesus brings more hope and joy than I have ever known in my entire life. What devastating thing happened that would deter him so extremely? He made a list...and it had everything to do with how the 'church' has dictated his faith. My heart breaks into a million pieces. The church was designed to love and encourage one another...not try to stuff them into a box that they feel should be the way that God would have them behave. God is not this way. God is good and loving and pours out His goodness to us. God made us each individually and He speaks to each of us individually. None of us fit into a box. PEOPLE are fallible and struggling and broken. And broken people hurt each other. But if we can accept all broken people for who they are and love them anyway...because God loves them; because he loves US...how many more people could see the face of God? If we just let people be different and value them for the gifts that God has given them, and encourage them towards those gifts. And allow people to be fallible, because not one of us is perfect. We all have struggles and insecurities and we've all been hurt to our core. The peace I find in my heart now doesn't mean I've somehow elevated my 'status' among my peers. What my peace has done is want to share it...and LOVE people because that is how I received my peace...by being loved. And really...loving people is so easy when we look at them through a window not tainted by our own broken image. And through this image, freedom reigns.
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