Because You say so...

We Christians think we know everything, and have all the answers. I have come to wonder if thats not just a bunch of political "fluff" for what Christainity should really be.

I recently ran across the blog of Jaw Poetry, it has been added as a link on the sidebar. He also has a blog journaling a new diet he is trying out. In one of his entries he gives the account of sharing his food with a hispanic man outside the restaurant. What really caught my attention was that he didn't try to push Jesus down his throat along with the meal. He showed this man love, with a genuine heart.

You wonder just how much of Christianity is just because "We say it is..." I know the past year I have been really trying to find the black and white answer to "What is Right and Wrong" I have questioned everything I am and do, right down to the clothes I wear or don't wear.

I think growing up I had this idea of what a Christian should be and do. That a Christian toted around a Bible, constantly quoting bible verses, spending hours in prayer, maintined a wonderful peaceful family. The family would also attend church every Sunday, Wednesday and every specail event. That a "real" Christian wouldn't have anything to do with drugs, alcohol, tattoos, peircings, or have to deal with any "real life" issues. They would obstain from the biggie....sex, even though there would be a house full of children. This thinking may seem more than a bit skewed. But how do you change it? I remember thinking sex was wrong, period.

I will never forget that day on the playground, in 3rd grade. A little girl was angry with me for playing with a boy she liked at recess. To "get me back" she told me that my mother had sex to have me. I was shocked, outraged...I remember thinking my mother doesn't have sex, she is a good woman. Only prostitutes have sex. Thinking my teacher would back me up, I explained it to her. She said it was true. ~GASP~ So I stormed home after school, ran to my mother's room and yelled "You had sex to have me?" Not knowing where this was coming from she laughed thinking I had lost my mind momentarily. She tried to explain that was how you had children, and that it wasn't bad. I thought you had children from kissing. Anyways, looking back on it its funny, but how much of what I believe as "wrong" now is the same kind of situation?

So, if you think back to the basics of Christianity what is there? Well there is love. Jesus showed extreme love to everyone he met. He told his followers to love each other as he loved them, unconditionally. So maybe the hardest thing we as Chritians stumble over is judging others. I have always said that it was wrong to kill a man on death row. My reasoning for that was not judging him. That is God's place, not mine. So why then, is it so hard to let that be my reasoning for everything else I see as wrong? Well, maybe because I needed to search through it, and ask my questions. Maybe because it was a growing process. Who knows...

If you then apply that to everything else that you view as wrong, and put love and understanding in its place, then what would life be like?