Whenever someone asks me if I’m a Christian, I never know really what to answer. Whenever someone asks me if I’m religious, I never know really what to answer either.

If I was back in middle school, or even the beginning of high school and you asked me these questions, I would have said yes to both. Partly I would have said yes to those questions because, honestly, I would’ve wanted to look like a good person. But I would’ve also said yes because I went to church, youth group, and the occasional small group, and believed that God was my Lord and savior. But what was missing was, I didn’t have a real, authentic relationship with Him. It wasn’t until after I actually pursued a relationship with Him that he changed my mindset not only about Christianity/religion, but also in general.

Saying I’m a Christian or that I’m religious makes me feel like I’m worshiping a religion rather than worshiping the one who came and died for me; but that’s my own opinion, I’m sure others don’t feel that way. But I feel like sometimes we get too caught up in all of the rules and traditions of Christianity, that we end up focusing on it instead of focusing on the whole reason why there even is that religion. Today we’re too focused on terminology and our own interpretations of the Bible, that we forget that there’s a God who loves us, cares about us, and knows even more than what’s in the Bible; we should focus more on him. Yes, reading our bible is great and we should be reading our bible a ton to get to know God better, but we should also be talking to Him just as much. I just feel like we get too caught up in the stories of the bible and forget that they’re actually true and that the God in those stories is pursing a relationship with us right now. The God that did so many healings, savings, and miracles that we read about is in our reach at all times.

So what I typically answer to if I’m a Christian or if I’m religious is, “well, I love Jesus. He’s my savior.” Even when I ask friends about the guy they like or about their parents or anyone really, I ask, “do they love Jesus?” instead of, “are they Christian?” I feel like asking if someone’s a Christian gets too confusing at times because so many people have different interpretations on what being a Christian is like. See, I don’t really care to know if someone calls themselves a Christian or classifies themselves as religious. I care to know if they passionately love Jesus so much that their heart aches to not only know Jim more, but also to be like Him more. That they want to love the world like He does. That it hurts their hearts to know that there are people in this world that will never get to experience the awesome, life-altering, beautiful relationship with Him. To me, the only thing that matters and what we should be focusing on is God; not labeling things based on how we individually see them.