What if God Was One of Us?

I’ve had something on my mind lately and today it has really been weighing on me to share it. So here I am.

Earlier this year I read an article about how half of the Americans are church goers and religion is down 70% just since 1999. That’s a huge percentage!

Obviously I’m still new to the whole church thing, as is often pointed out to me when I discuss any sort of church “politic,” but I have thoughts on this subject. Churches today are quite opposite; half are the louder, more progressive-style churches that have live bands and multiple pastors in trendy clothes, they are active on Facebook and Instagram, they have parties every month for something. The other half, of course, is more traditional with hymns found in books on the back of a church pew, everybody in their “Sunday’s best,” they hold bake sales and gender-specific bible studies. The extremes of these two churches is enough to cause a disconnect because some people like the more laid back atmosphere, others like the tradition, some people don’t want to chat, others love the small talk. People are pretty set in their church, though, and they don’t often branch out or check other churches because, for some reason, it’s taboo and frowned upon.

Why? I like to visit different restaurants because of the variety of offerings, I’m ultimately just feeding my body. Why can’t people visit different churches to hear different messages when it comes to feeding their soul?

The one thing, probably the only thing, that every church has in common is their love of Jesus. That’s kind of where it ends, though, because I don’t see a lot of love happening outside of those church walls. I don’t know the bible well enough to pretend I know the scripture that says it, but I’m pretty sure that we’re supposed to follow Christ outside of the church, too.

1 John 2:6 that says, “If we say we are His we must follow the example of Christ.” Not just follow Him, but follow the example of Him.

I think it’s too often that Christians forget that the way that we act, the way that we speak, for our Lord is how we are representing Him. Does that make sense? So when a person sits on their facebook making fun of drag queens, the LGBTQ+ community, Caitlyn Jenner, calling them disgusting, saying they’ll never get into Heaven, then immediately shares that their God loves everybody…I think it’s safe to say that that person is presenting a contradictory God.

Romans 13:10 says, “Love does no harm to a neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.”

I speak from experience when I say that it’s things like that that actually kept me away from the church, from God, from anybody who identified as a follower of Christ. You have extremists, like the Westboro Baptist Church or Kim Davis, who are very boisterous in their preaching and opinions and that turns people away; it turns away people who don’t yet know Jesus and it turns away people like me, who love Him but don’t want to be affiliated with the haters.

1 Peter 3:15 says, “But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect.”

We are supposed to be spreading the word of the Gospel, yes, but if we’re only preaching our judgements who is really going to want to listen. It’s important to be kind and to show the love of Jesus because, at the end of the day, Jesus made sure that Judas ate, too.

Proverbs 16:24 says, “Kind words are like honey – sweet to the soul and healthy for the body.”

1 Corinthian 14:33 says, “For God is not a God of confusion but of peace.”

I am not perfect, I won’t begin to pretend that I am, I know I have a long way to grow in my faith, but I am confident that I am showing the love of Jesus in my behavior. I realize that this post may come off as judgmental, that’s not my goal, but a general blanket post to encourage my fellow church folk to think before they post or preach, and to my non-believer friends to know that not every Christian has coldness in their heart. More often than not they mean well, they just aren’t so eloquent.

Ephesians 4:32 says, “Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.”

Thanks for reading. Go forth and be kind.