You know what? I’m a Christian. A big one. I know I may well lose half my followers with this but I feel like it’s important to say. I think I am representative of a lot of Christians and I wanted to put a big shout out to all those who are sitting in the middle of the pressures of our crazy world, and just trying to do life.
If you are not interested in this, please do feel free to scroll on by. If you are Christian, I hope what I am about to say resonates with you. If you are not Christian but are faintly amused and intrigued, please take the time to meet us.
Real Christians are messy. Some of us are messier than others. But what I mean is we are not perfect. Far from it. Our lives are full of the same struggles as everyone else. We have the same troubled relationships and work place issues. We have failed marriages and kids who are going off the rails. We have gay family and friends and people close to us who are chronically ill and dying. We are married, we are single, we are divorced, we are widowed. We self-medicate with pills or alcohol or shopping or social media. We have mummy guilt and self-doubt. We have messy houses and crazy time schedules. We are scared and overjoyed and stressed. We love ourselves and hate ourselves. We lie awake at night worrying, just like everyone.
What props us up is knowing God loves us. In the middle of the mess and fear, God loves us. There is nothing we have done or could do that could earn the outstanding grace he extended to us. He doesn’t love us because we loved him – when he sacrificed his son for us – us small, messy, fragile people – we know for sure that he loved us first.
And we struggle. Oh yes we struggle. Being a Christian isn’t a magic bullet. We didn’t just join the Perfect Club and start blissfully ignoring everything that doesn’t fit the perfect picture. We do life in community. We belong to each other and hold each other up. In all honesty, it’s how a lot of us are still standing.
Why am I writing this? Because I am a Christian. And I have a voice. I don’t want to pretend that Christianity is just a lifestyle choice, or something nice to do on a Sunday. Being a Christian is a life choice. It’s not just life changing, it’s a whole new way of living.
But I also don’t want to pretend that it is license to become a sanctimonious ass. And if your experience of Christians is this, I am truly sorry – please know that they don’t represent the majority. We were given grace. Grace is what we need to live. That doesn’t mean we have to like or agree with everything, or be a doormat. But living by grace is the goal. Respectfully disagreeing with someone in no way compromises that. You don’t have to hate on someone to disagree with them.
Grace. That’s what we strive for. We may screw it up, but that’s the intent and the motivation.
I am a Christian and I have a voice. So let’s hear it for us little guys, us normal messy Christians struggling through life but loving Jesus, loving the bible, and loving God.
I am a messy Christian the more mess I leave at his feet the more grace I have experienced and mercy. His mercy does reign but his spirit is transforming me constantly deeply& every now & then I will remember orrealise how differently I think or see things & then I can poreciate his power & how I am becoming less as he becomes more. Jesus is so beautiful& personal, intimately walking with me The things of this earth do grow strangely dim in the light of his beauty grace life can sometimes be so hard but I don’t have to live in fear any more. All things will pass away including my messy life. But eternity with my saviour is becoming more certain & real