I believe in God and I love God.
I believe in Jesus and I love Jesus.
I believe in people and I love people.
A little while ago I was perusing Facebook-- as one does when one is bored-- and I was mad. Just mad. I have come to terms with the amount of opinions on Facebook, respectively, because that is what Facebook has turned into and if I don't like it I don't have to have it, simple as that. But I like it so instead I decide to put up with some crazy opinions here and there, deleting and unfollowing the few posts I get sick by. But recently I was at a loss for words. It all started with a comment on a post that read "I have only ever experienced hate from Christians..."
To be clear, I am not at a loss for words at this comment. Because I completely understand where this person is coming from and I'll get to more of that a little later. But I was at a loss for words at the reply and reaction of people defending their faith. In no way or other did anyone apologize for the hate that this person obviously felt. They went into defending their faith by listing off all the places where this person feeling all the hate went wrong. As if to say "well you're only feeling that hate because you"re basically living your life wrong, so do it our way and you'll feel the love".
At reading these comments I just wanted to message this person right away and apologize and hug them for all the ways we have failed in displaying love. The comments attacking this person were full of hate disguised as God's love.
You see, as Christians, we feel a sense of authority over everyone else. We feel as though we've got it all figured out and have to tell everyone else how to live their life in order for them to come to know Jesus. And when we see someone sinning we think "oh pour broken person, let me tell you how to exactly live your life so you don't do stupid things anymore and God can love you". But what we fail to remember is that we as Christians are just as broken, just as insignificant, just as unworthy as we claim everyone else to be. We think we live under an umbrella of favouritism over everyone else because we have been saved. When in truth, that is simply not the case.
Truth is: God loves all His children equally. Full stop. I am not going to go into detail here because there is simply no point. Because that is it. There is nothing more to add to "God loves all His children equally" because that is all there is. There is no one who is loved more or less because of their actions. It's as simple as that. God loves all His children. Equally.
Authority and hierarchy have ruined relationships. We think because we have been saved we have all the power in the world to tell people how to live their lives. I know we are supposed to help a fellow believer when they stumble. But that's just it: a fellow believer. We can't expect someone who doesn't believe in God act as though they are following God. And in any case, God is the one who does the convicting, judging and changing, not us. God changes us from the inside out, not the outside in. You don't have to prepare yourself with a sinless life and pure white gown in order to come to God. It happens from the inside out and all the rest will follow. And if we build relationships with people instead of tear them down, we can walk with them in the process.
If we are preaching hate, we are only furthering people from actually stepping into any sort of openness with God. Through our words and our actions, we have made God into a bully when really it is us who are the bullies. We as Christians are meant to know love so deep, so rich, so full and so extraordinary that we can't help but have it seeping out our pores, flowing from our mouths and soaking every word we speak. But we don't. Instead we preach rules and regulations in order to make people want to change their lives. But I refuse to go on Facebook-- because Facebook is no place to air out someone else's dirty laundry--hide behind my keyboard and tell everyone what they are doing wrong and why they need to stop.
I believe in Jesus and I love Jesus.
I believe in people and I love people.
A little while ago I was perusing Facebook-- as one does when one is bored-- and I was mad. Just mad. I have come to terms with the amount of opinions on Facebook, respectively, because that is what Facebook has turned into and if I don't like it I don't have to have it, simple as that. But I like it so instead I decide to put up with some crazy opinions here and there, deleting and unfollowing the few posts I get sick by. But recently I was at a loss for words. It all started with a comment on a post that read "I have only ever experienced hate from Christians..."
To be clear, I am not at a loss for words at this comment. Because I completely understand where this person is coming from and I'll get to more of that a little later. But I was at a loss for words at the reply and reaction of people defending their faith. In no way or other did anyone apologize for the hate that this person obviously felt. They went into defending their faith by listing off all the places where this person feeling all the hate went wrong. As if to say "well you're only feeling that hate because you"re basically living your life wrong, so do it our way and you'll feel the love".
At reading these comments I just wanted to message this person right away and apologize and hug them for all the ways we have failed in displaying love. The comments attacking this person were full of hate disguised as God's love.
You see, as Christians, we feel a sense of authority over everyone else. We feel as though we've got it all figured out and have to tell everyone else how to live their life in order for them to come to know Jesus. And when we see someone sinning we think "oh pour broken person, let me tell you how to exactly live your life so you don't do stupid things anymore and God can love you". But what we fail to remember is that we as Christians are just as broken, just as insignificant, just as unworthy as we claim everyone else to be. We think we live under an umbrella of favouritism over everyone else because we have been saved. When in truth, that is simply not the case.
Truth is: God loves all His children equally. Full stop. I am not going to go into detail here because there is simply no point. Because that is it. There is nothing more to add to "God loves all His children equally" because that is all there is. There is no one who is loved more or less because of their actions. It's as simple as that. God loves all His children. Equally.
Authority and hierarchy have ruined relationships. We think because we have been saved we have all the power in the world to tell people how to live their lives. I know we are supposed to help a fellow believer when they stumble. But that's just it: a fellow believer. We can't expect someone who doesn't believe in God act as though they are following God. And in any case, God is the one who does the convicting, judging and changing, not us. God changes us from the inside out, not the outside in. You don't have to prepare yourself with a sinless life and pure white gown in order to come to God. It happens from the inside out and all the rest will follow. And if we build relationships with people instead of tear them down, we can walk with them in the process.
If we are preaching hate, we are only furthering people from actually stepping into any sort of openness with God. Through our words and our actions, we have made God into a bully when really it is us who are the bullies. We as Christians are meant to know love so deep, so rich, so full and so extraordinary that we can't help but have it seeping out our pores, flowing from our mouths and soaking every word we speak. But we don't. Instead we preach rules and regulations in order to make people want to change their lives. But I refuse to go on Facebook-- because Facebook is no place to air out someone else's dirty laundry--hide behind my keyboard and tell everyone what they are doing wrong and why they need to stop.
Because as a Christian, and a human being, I refuse to be another reason why someone feels unloved.
Instead I choose to love the people around me. I choose to live my life in a way that will bring glory to God. I choose to be the person that someone would want to run to in the middle of hurt and brokenness instead of run away from. Because I am loved just as much as the next person whether or not they live the same way as I do. And just like the next person I am going to screw up and make mistakes, but I would rather someone help me up and tell me to keep moving forward and love me through my mistakes than push me down further telling me all the ways I went wrong. Instead I want people to say "I have experienced nothing but love from Christians..."
But that's just me and my simple mind.
