This is a frustrated rant. I usually make fun of these when I see them on other blogs, but I think I now understand the satisfaction of getting it out in the Digital Open. Ah! How those ones and zeros deliver my emotions so smoothly! Ahem…
I feel like we’re fighting a tidal wave. It just sweeps us backward until we crack our heads on rocks.
I mean, seriously. How many times have we said that we don’t want to be superficial? We don’t want to be like those mega churches that are all about image. Yet here we are, saving face. It’s like we focus on one part of following Christ so much that we forget about others.
My wife and I allowed other Christians tell us how they believed that God disapproved of what we were doing. This has happened so many times. We allowed them to talk with us, pray for us, counsel us. We stopped and tried hard to do this because they were bold enough to speak what they believed. We trusted them. We knew they loved us and were helping us.
Yet…
When we eventually say, “Hey, we think that what you’re doing is wrong,” we are considered to be negative, trying to cause trouble… mean, rude, rash. Really, it has left us dumb-founded. ”Here, I am going to clean up your crap but don’t you dare touch mine!”
I feel like we are chum scrubbers; we are the algae-eaters in the fish bowl. We are expected to just eat all the shit we see to keep the bowl pretty. Maybe the bowl shouldn’t be pretty. Maybe our image is what has made the church we see today so unreliable… untrustworthy… deceitful. Maybe eating all this shit is bad for our bodies; or Body, in this case.
It’s like the Christian music fest tonight. The image has just changed to a bunch of screaming guitars and skinny guys bellowing out their lungs. I heard three bands say the exact same line: “Just so you all know, the only reason we’re up here is Jesus Christ.” The church is trying on a new mask.
We’re all fuck-ups. Jesus said we are; therefore, we are. I know you have a mess; I see it. It’s just as bad as my mess was when you helped me and just as bad as another mess I probably have. All we’re trying to do is love you by helping you avoid future disaster. Just trust us. We see it. But our love has been twisted to make us out to be trouble-makers.
This is how we make peace with everyone. We love them. Love has never been all smiles. Who is going to let their friend ride off a cliff if they know it’s coming? I will scream my head off until you hear me.
This all boiled down to: We committed to a year of serving, but my wife has been asked to not serve. Predicament.
“Mess? What mess?”
