It is often said that we live in a Christian country and I wonder … what does that mean exactly?
Is it that everybody is a Christian? Or is it only those who go to church over the week-end? Is it those ones who may never go to church or seldom go but they have a true clean and pure heart? Maybe it’s those who go several times a week but may or may not have a pure, clean heart.
In my estimation, being a Christian carries a huge responsibility and great commitment.
I am no scholar, of Christianity and otherwise, and they do say a little knowledge is dangerous.
Therein lays my danger, lol!
To be clear I am not a Christian. I was never baptized and perhaps I was christened but not confirmed (Anglican system). And thank God, it was not a requirement to reach the age of majority.
One of the things we are good at is assuming that we know things by connecting certain dots but some dots are coloured differently and oftentimes a black dot does not automatically connect with a red dot.
Because of my childhood experiences, I never spoke a lot or even thought a lot about what was going on around me even if I saw what was going on and a few persons have incorrectly assumed that I must be a Christian.
I grew up seeing the mostly latent disregard one congregation had over another from a different religion. Mostly they try to get along unless they choose to discuss the differing church rules which often lead to a ding-dong battle but there are certain items of doctrine by which Christians are supposed to live by which are laid out in the Ten Commandments in the Old Testament. Of course, Jesus came and modified that and instructed Christians to love God and love thy neighbour as thyself. This to me is the same thing, because God said “if you love me you should keep my commandments” and I quote loosely, and if you love God everything else should fall into place.
I imagine that we create a standard to live by because of our belief systems and experiences in general but as a Christian I expect I would have had to follow the rules set out in The Bible since I would be taking up the charge of living my life so my light would shine for others to see and want to emulate. That’s a whole lot of commitment that my already burdened shoulders would not have been able bear.
Being curious about why people are “called” to Christianity, I have studied the Bible at different points in my life with two groups specifically because they were the most disregarded. I wanted to know what made them different, how they interacted with each other, the reverence they show to God, the religion they chose and the experience with both groups was very insightful.
It seems to me when one chooses to be a Christian, he or she also chooses to be scrutinized because in order for people to follow you and allow you to make them ‘fishers of men’ you have a tacit agreement to be scrutinized. Also, I believe, there is a tacit agreement to not judge others based off your choice. As individuals we all get to choose, rightly or wrongly.
Nobody is perfect but I have yet to come up with a good reason why I should follow someone who cannot seem to follow the ten commandments, or the grace rule, love God and love your neighbour as yourself. Maybe I don’t know what love is, but I don’t see a lot of love on display. Furthermore, I followed the rules of Christianity most of my life better than a lot of so called Christians who were doing everything people ‘in the world’ were doing so why would I want to emulate them?
Perhaps if the phrase, ‘nobody is perfect’ is used less frequently and there is more concentration on being a better/different person then more persons would be called to Christianity.
And stop expecting people to live up to the choices you made. You are the ones under the gun.
With Christmas coming ‘roun’ de cawna’ Christians should really try to do a better job of loving their neighbours as themselves.
Me? I’m the lost sheep that Jesus left the flock to find.
I, too, am important and enough.
Here’s to a huge 2017 for everyone knowing that God knew us all before we came into our mothers’ wombs; and that we are all children of God, the Great Creator!
P.S.
I have met a handful of Christians, a handful mind you, who I have not doubted their genuineness in their interactions with people in general for a moment. To date some of the worst experiences I have had have been with so called Christians both males and females and have experienced the most bitter hatred as well.
I was not taught love. I had to discover what that was, I still am. The Bible is the most available book worldwide and we all read or can read from it and perhaps we need to focus on 1 Corinthians 13 more in which can be found the most explicit definition of LOVE. We all need to read it daily so we can be reminded constantly in this world where we are bombarded by haters, warmongers and gossip-mongers who are always up for a stint of character assassination.