Do You Give Christianity A Bad Name?
Some of you read this and immediately climbed up on the pedestal to say “girl speak for yourself, I’m ‘good’” What I need you to hear is I’m standing here with my hand raised saying, not just you. Me too.
I sat and cried, my heart broken for the ugliness being spewed on social media. I am in a facebook group for peloton. If you are not familiar, peloton is an interactive bike with a very large community of riders. They have hundred of rides and workouts you can take of all genre’s. Hip Hop, Country, 70’s music, Yacht Rock, etc.
Recently a woman posted “Would anyone be interested in a Contemporary Christian Music class? I would ❤️”. 618 comments later and it became glaringly obvious that “out of the mouth comes the heart”. People spewed venom that this woman would even suggest a ride “linked” to religion. Let me emphasis that this whole conversation became centered around religion rather than a genre of music. One of the comments even had a link to a Satanic subset group.
Friends, the world has attached sinless, perfection, better than and so many other “self” serving labels to our identity as Christians. There is a pervasive belief among those of the world that Christians are being hypocritical when they stumble. It is the excuse the lost use to justify their reasons for seeking a savior other than Jesus.
Truly, who wants to dump a suitcase full of baggage out before broken people that can wound us deeply. As evidenced in the facebook thread, the lost are quick to judge and bully when they brush up against the hem of the masters cloak. Contrary to one of the comments on the thread “sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me”, we know we do not battle flesh and blood, but words do still wound and hurt us.
As Christians, we hide our baggage as if we were already perfect when we surrendered at the cross. What we have failed to effectively convey to the world is that it is our brokenness, our baggage of infidelity, addictions to drugs, alcohol, sex, hatefulness, pride, thirst for power and money and so much more that leads us to grace at the foot of the cross. Not perfection.
Perfection leaves no room for God’s grace. Brokenness leads to surrender.
As Christians we have fed the lie the world chews on as an excuse and contributed to giving Christianity a bad name. We puff up with pride and act as if Christianity gives us status, a pious sense that salvation has elevated us above the lost and hurting. We are really good at justifying and excusing our sin using the tool of comparison. We define sin as "big” and “little” and in our humanness we tend to think of “big” sin as theirs and “little” sin as mine.
We hide the boulders we trip over daily under neatly cut squares of AstroTurf and pretend like our Jesus game doesn’t include obstacle and boulders. We stand on the top of the rock in a position of superiority rather than standing on the principles of God as the least of these. We believe we are better than others because we know Jesus, we go to church, we read our bible, we serve, we give, we are “good people”, we do all the Christiany things we have attached to being a “good” Christian.
As a people, I believe we have lost touch with the reality of what the foundation of Christianity looks like. We have sold out to luke warm. We preach and teach those that are like minded with confidence and a sense of fitting in. We perpetuate the myth that Christians are perfect by hiding our failures under the cloak of religion. We forget the ditch we crawled out of and the reason we are in need of a savior ourself. Friends, I want to emphasize this point as I remind you and as I remind my own human heart… Christ came to save the lost, the broken, the imperfect. You and me.
It is only in honest admittance of our failure instead of our
boasting that make us relatable to the lost.
Lord help us consider our motive...is it to save ourselves from embarrassment or to bring glory and honor to God? Keep our feet from stumbling into the touchy-feely “good” Christian labels. Keep us from clinging to the comfortable chains of religion. Remove the pedestal so we can stand eye to eye with the lost in the messy ditch of life. Lord change the narrative of the world from hypocritical to genuine love. Raise up warriors that will shake the chains of religion and ignite a fire that can not be quenched. Help us drop the baggage of religion and the chains of “good” and run in FULL surrender and grace into relationship with THE ALMIGHTY GOD. Amen.
Much Love,
Chrissy