One of the things you hear most about, when people are complaining about what Christians are like, is that they are so perfect that it's hard to be around them. So, I was thinking about this and the Christians I know and love, and I gotta say...well, that isn't true at all! I mean, most of the people who are my church family are just like any other family. They squabble. They argue about some of the dumbest stuff. They point fingers at others as opposed to turning that finger around and pointing at themselves. The people who are Christians are just that: people. Long and short, fat and thin, bald or hairy, frowning into their communion cups or smiling joyfully at the bread they receive. God did not make perfect people. He made people period. And what those people chose to make of the world and the other people in that world is what makes us all so diverse, so unique and so cranky sometimes. Because we can't seem to love one another as God loves us. We find fault. We find that others don't think like us or act like us. Sometimes we don't even give a person a chance at all! But the defining characteristic of a Christian is that we believe that Jesus died for us, no matter how unworthy we can be. God SO LOVED the world...not just the plants and the water and the air, but God loved people--John and Jane and Nancy and Jay and Manny and Jack and even Aunt Ethel, God rest her soul! God loves us as we are. The Almighty might not be too pleased with the way we treat each other sometimes, but we are loved at all times.
So no, we aren't perfect as Christians. But we are loved. ALL of us. Even if you don't call yourself a Christian. So in the interest of showing what Christians are really like, can we try to be a little more loving, a little more understanding and perhaps show the world that we're not such a bad bunch of bananas after all? Just think if those who turned away from us could be turned to us! How amazing that would be. So how about it?
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