Don't Get It Twisted

A lot of the reason I am apprehensive about this blogging thing is simple: People talk. Me talking about God and how I'm supposed to live and how you're supposed to live puts me in some newly established category of people. Because I am trying to make the Christian walk a reality for someone who only sees what I like to call "holy high rollers"; I'm now expected to do certain things while making sure to not do others. It's the reality in which we live, and I honestly allowed it to keep me from doing what God gave me the instruction to do quite some time ago.

People have a way of holding others to higher expectations than they hold themselves. People who claim to be Christians seem to have this the worst. It makes me think about the Pharisees and Sadducees in the Bible. They always had something to say! But when the Son of God called them out, they were always stuck (see Matthew 16, Matthew 22, and Mark 12). That's how a lot of Christians are today. They want to come for everyone else, but are a whole lot less concerned with themselves. You know who they are. The ones who lean over in the pew and say, "She got 2 babies and ain't married, but they let her direct the choir." Or you might hear them try to be more polite and direct with, "Is that cigarette smoke I smell? Well you know the Word says the body is a temple." It's funny though because BEFORE getting to know Christ...BEFORE spiritual growth, these same people had some of these same problems. Shoot, some of them had FAR WORSE problems. Somehow, going to church on Sunday and knowing a few verses gives people a pass to condemn others.

Romans 12: 3 For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the faith God has distributed to each of you.

Let me clear this thing up once and for all for anyone reading this. I am unapologetically human. God could have made me a rock, but He didn't. He gave me the necessity of breath. He could have made me a bird or better yet a panther, but He chose instead to make me a woman. Because I am a woman, we know that I am far from perfect. Because I am a person, we know that God gave me the gift of life, so I wake up and open it fresh each day I'm blessed with the chance. So...yes, there will be times that I am open and honest about behaviors and attitudes that are seemingly "un-Christian".  Why? Because all have sinned and fallen short of His glory (Romans 3:23) You might see me at the local night club celebrating with friends or just chilling with my hubby on some two-stepping, sipping, and chicken eating (Ecclesiastes 9:7). None of that makes you or I less Christian. It is simply the realism of our humanity.

We are people. People do and say and live. Not all the time do these things line up with what other people think, but who cares? However, when it doesn't line up with what God tells us, He deals with each of us accordingly for that. But the key person to do the dealing isn't you or I...it's Him! Somehow the perception has become that because we are affiliated with a church, we are the end all be all in Christian behavior. That's absurd! To think that because we profess our belief in and desire to follow God, we are unable to live and grow in His grace, to be "living testimonies" to His work and power, is cray cray.

God is always working in me. He always has His hand on me. He's always doing the same with you. None of us are perfect. Most of us are struggling with living a life pleasing in God's sight from moment to moment, breath to breath. It would be a lot easier for us to live with this reality if we accepted the fact that Christianity is made up of humans. Humans are people. People live. Living life on earth will have ups and downs, triumphs and failures. It's just that simple. No need to complicate it by making sure everyone else is playing by the rules when you, my friend, never even took the time to read them for yourself. Be Blessed! XOXO