We live in a world where terrorist attacks and mass murders reign supreme in headlines and conversations filled with anger against them, but yet we are quick to turn our eyes to far less important things such as the Christmas Starbucks cups or whether gorilla lives truly matter. We live in a country where it is utterly inappropriate to speak of our beliefs publicly in certain circumstances, yet it is a free conversation as to whether a man should be allowed in the small dimensions of a room where a female’s privacy and safety should be upheld. We live in states that promote and pass particular laws with citizen’s well-being in mind and argue with one another about our differences, but have we really forgotten that love knows no boarders. We reside in cities and communities that offer schools that are more worried about test scores and dress code that the individual intelligence and learning methods of a student is completely ignored.
“Everyone is a genius. But if you judge a fish on its ability to climb a tree, it will spend its whole life thinking it is stupid,” Albert Einstein.
We attend colleges that only care about the decimal number beside our name and the Greek letters on shirts, but when a girl is raped after a frat party and found behind a dumpster, lips are closed and her drunken consent is magnified into “maybe it wasn’t rape, she seemed to like it.”
We sit on a pew every Sunday listening to someone preaching what we wish to hear instead of stepping on our toes and making us leave the service challenged to try even harder to be like Christ, and accountable for the actions we have already done. We live as a robot, expecting someone to maybe be "a little more programmed" to finally say what needs to be said. Why is it so hard to be a Christian today? Because we have chosen happiness over holiness. We are offended, sensitive, contained, conformed, hurt, rebellious, fragile, different, and judged. Religion and the separation in interpretation has taken the title, child of the one true king, and replaced it with denomination and division.
“Then make me truly happy by agreeing wholeheartedly with each other, loving one another, and working together with one mind and purpose” Philippians 2:2.
Outsiders look into this Christian lifestyle and think it comes with a “theme”. You do not need to know how to do calligraphy, own Chacos, an Eno is not a necessity or go on a mission trip and take adorable candids (which I have always loved looking at) to be seen as the Christian worth following. All you need as a starter kit to being a Christian is a certain heart, a broken one at that, in need of divine repair. Show off your God not your relationship with God, motives are everything. Age should never discourage, for He asked the children to come to Him, and situations in this life should never dismay because all who thirst are welcome. Never give the glory to yourself for doing what you are called to do. God chose you to use, you are His servant, and He made a personal will for your life not to give you glory but His kingdom.
Pray to the ruler not the room, when we pray to the room our prayers are stationary, but when we pray to the ruler He pours out in abundance. Never demean God’s power by dreaming incompetent dreams, let Him show you His wonders without your limits. Be forever amazed at the life God has given you, and forever be infatuated with all He was, is and will be doing for your good and for you to prosper. I get it, it seems easier to follow the crowd.
I was there, and I still am sometimes in that mindset. I’m in college, I got swept into the wrong social scene to start with, made friends that I probably could’ve lived without, and chose to make decisions and there after suffered consequences. I was in places I shouldn’t have been, around social groups that were not positive influences and following their footsteps, what they did I did.
But, quickly, this became a fizzled out phase because I realized if they aren’t leading you, you better be leaving them. It is truly hard to find those with pure hearts, intentions and motives to surround yourself with, but pray continuously for people to be placed in your life that support, encourage, enhance, motivate, challenge and propel you to the ultimate prize which is receiving Christ and all His abundance of blessings when you spend your time here on earth in correspondence with His plans. Live selflessly, I’ve had a few say my articles have impacted them greatly, but it is not me and I am not great. I am not a role model, yet a sinner saved by grace trying to be the one “programmed a little differently.” I am flesh and bones, a vessel being used. It is not me, I am simply human with a burning desire to speak to the few then reach the multitude.
Live in desperation, we must look at this world with God’s eyes and we should become utterly shattered inside and yearn to show love instead of hate, be courageous instead of fearful and purposeful instead of aimlessness. Live without judgement, for those who judge will too be judged. We must not preach how right we are and wrong someone else is, but live in such a way that it is incredibly attractive to not only the believer but the sinner. Lastly, be vulnerable, for it is up to us to keep our heart flexible enough to His callings and our ears open. It simply takes a certain heart, a broken one at that in need of divine repair, and a bold heart to tell who raised their brokenness to light.