I feel that I have been on the right track to being the Christian who focuses singlehandedly on spreading God’s love and encouraging others by being logical life and focusing on who people are instead of what they do with their lives. I have always had an external relationship with God. I naturally knew that He existed, feared His judgment, and knew that when I would die I would go to Heaven. I knew the story of what Jesus did, but having a intimate relationship with Him was not a thing in my life up until four years ago.
In my short few years as a Christian toddler, I have found myself growing into a Christian that I am honestly excited about. After a long and windy road of sin and destruction, I meet the other side of life having survived by way of an absolute miracle. Although I have been saved and accepted Christ as my savior, I still have this logical eye that sees exactly what goes on around me in the world.
I thoroughly enjoy meeting new people or putting myself in classes or situations that force me to come out with a different understanding of their culture and difference of opinions and belief. I feel that to approach this way of life is extremely healthy and gives you a better idea of how God sees humanity as well. I say this because when He looks down, He sees our hearts and loves us for who we are. He definitely knows that we sin and knows what they entail, yet that is not what His focus is on.
Instead God focuses on making sure that we know who He is in our hearts. He doesn’t require a time limit to get to know Him, instead He continues to bless us with having free will to choose how we live our lives. Never once does God not give us options.
As someone who has spent most of her life on a sinful path I can’t imagine being a hypocrite and shedding light on someone else when I am no better nor less than they are. I have heard what God says – that all sin is of equal measure. Because of this that is how I choose to approach the world.
I will never put down or degrade someone else for the sex, religion, culture, lifestyle, race, or opinions that are different than mine. I welcome conversations about various topics but I can’t promise that my heart or mind will be changed or shifted. Choosing to be indifferent, in support, or against something is not what I want the focus of my faith to be about. My responsibility as a Christian is to follow God’s word and not be selective on which ones I pay attention to and which ones I ignore.
Whether I agree with something or disagree, it’s going to be an argument in someone’s eyes and quite frankly I don’t have the time or energy to spend time and time again having the same arguments just to have it result in no where and no purpose. I can’t move mountains in our society and culture and quite frankly nor can anyone else on this earth- that is all up to Jesus to do when He returns. Only then will this world ever be straight on anything that is of a confusing nature.
I would definitely say that I am torn as a Christian because I have grown with the idea that there is no solid avenue of Christianity- there are plenty. I wouldn’t label myself as a conservative and I wouldn’t label myself as a liberal either. I would say that I am a free spirit who has a set of opinions and ideas – I welcome conversations to help me understand other points of view- but at the end of the day I am simply just me.
My main focus as a Christian is to know God, to never lose faith of who Jesus is and constantly remind myself of what He did on The Cross and why, and to have solid hope that the Holy Spirit will always guide me down the right path and honestly that is the only person I can control is me. It is a priority to raise my children to know who God is and believe firmly in what Jesus did on The Cross, as well as to learn to listen to the Holy Spirit’s leadership in their lives. These are what I consider as the fundamental foundation of beliefs.
Being a Christian isn’t about being on the defense side of sin or supporting it- that is not our place. Being a Christian is about having the confidence to read the words we are given in The Bible, understand what they say, and have the right to feel secure in our own perception and understanding of the words WITHOUT facing condemnation or judgment from others. We are all entitled to have our own opinions and beliefs and they should not define our relationships with one another because that itself is a whole other area of issues.
For me personally, there are a lot of doctrinal things that I can’t wait to understand and learn more about in the future. But right now all I can focus on is the amount of hatred, ignorance, and civil restlessness and oppression that is being publicized all over the media and Facebook. It’s all completely distracting from the Only Hope of the World.
I don’t want to be that Christian that is made up to be someone with conservative views, instead I would prefer to be a Christian who is respected for being the non labeled Christian she is and appreciated that someone who was once trapped in such a horrible environment of darkness, has received victory over it and has traveled to the light because of Jesus Christ. To me that should be the only definition of who we are as a Christian and anything extra should be left to be judged and determined between God and the individual.