The Journey Begins
I’ve mentioned this before that I’ve been on a journey to rediscover God, church, and faith all together. I’ve listened, read, and written a lot about faith. Throughout this journey, I was able to open my mind a bit more to things I don’t necessarily think I would have thought about before.
It also helped me deal with some of my grief from being burned by Christians. Does it mean I’m fully healed? No, but I’m definitely in a better place. As I reflect on where I’m at right now, I have a few things that come to mind that I believe are important for myself and others who are Christians.
1. If you doubt, it doesn’t mean your faith is weak, it just means you are being refined.
Doubt is a topic that is becoming more and more acceptable in Christianity. I think people are starting to see that doubt is not a bad thing but rather a transforming part of life. Doubt makes people dig deeper and really see what they actually believe.
Through doubt people can be refined in their faith or lose it. Either way, someone is directed in a direction toward what they truly believe. By no means do I celebrate people walking away from Christ, but I do appreciate someone wrestling with their faith and standing on what they truly believe. Doubt is a part of the process to get us digging deeper into our own hearts and being refined.
2. Just because you believe in Jesus, doesn’t mean you are always right and have all the answers.
Don’t you always hate that person that thinks they are always right. It’s worse when even you have all these facts but they still don’t get it. This can happen to Christians too. The worst part is that as Christians we feel we need to have an answer and it has to be right.
This honestly isn’t the case. Sometimes we have to accept that we don’t have the answer and we aren’t right. The main area of contention is definitely in politics. People will use scripture to base their idea of what’s right. Sometimes we can be right but if I’m being honest, most of the time I’m not.
We also need to realize we don’t need answers all the time for people. For instance, when someone loses someone, we don’t need to give them an answer as to why it happened. The best thing to do is sit with the person and just be there. It’s okay, sometimes showing Jesus can be that simple.
3.Yes, even Christians can use Christ to benefit themselves.
This one was probably one of the hardest things to come to terms with in my journey. I believe we all have our ideas of what a Christian should look like and we kind of thrust that expectation unto others and ourselves. This isn’t always the best thing, but I believe we are programmed that way.
So why was this idea hard for me. I mean this is a human nature thing, right? We are programmed to take advantage of things in order to make life better for ourselves. Well… that’s not necessarily the Christian life.
I, first hand, have seen people use Jesus to benefit themselves. I mean they put on this face of a good-hearted Christian and are doing things to benefit those who are in trouble. I’ve also seen some of these people go on paid sabbaticals and drive expensive trucks. I’ve seen them fire people who are praying and working long hours to benefit other people. Christians aren’t the exception to the rule, and they aren’t always doing things pure hearted. Some day you have to accept that people will take advantage of people. You have to make a decision on how you yourself will handle this.
4. Being authentic is important, yes that includes church leaders!
One of those ideas that always was important to me: The ability to be authentic with others. This means being open about life with people. That might mean sharing a bit of a struggle or the joy of things that are good.
To be clear, on this point, it’s important to note that you shouldn’t be foolishly authentic to everyone. People are not all trustworthy. Yet it’s important to be able to be open with someone to keep you accountable.
Specifically with church leaders, or any leader at that, it’s important to be able to be open about decisions. It’s good to express struggles and mistakes if any are made. I think people are more likely to follow those who can at least admit short-comings. It also allows others to feel like they can say what they are going through. This is an important part of being a Christian, and we need to be authentic in order to allow others to see Jesus.
5. Community is needed and it doesn’t always need to be a church.
Now before someone throws stones my way, let me explain what I mean by this statement. Church to me is an important part of the Christian journey. The thing is, it’s how you view the church. I see the church as people rather than the building and worship service I attend on Sunday’s.
Like I said, the church is important to me and I’d be lying if I said the building and service wasn’t important to me. Yet, I like to point out the fact that we can experience church with other Christians. It could be as simple as playing music together, having a spiritual conversation, or many other ideas. In my experience, I found a lot of growth in my community in an online group. I was able to ask questions and discuss my faith with really great support.
Some people will want you to go to a building and that’s great but we also need to know that worship can also be done in a house or other places of gathering. If the concern is more about numbers at a Sunday service, we may need to check ourselves. Community can happen anywhere and we need to embrace it. This isn’t anything against the normal Sunday service, it’s just accepting that you can find community with the church in other ways.
6. You also do need the one-on-one relationship with God.
I believe in the importance of the one-on-one time with God. I think we need to have our time where we are without distraction (other than our own minds). Sometimes we need to go back to the source of all things. It’s important to sit with God. Maybe you won’t feel anything but, through the practice, it allows you to experience God.
I think the personal relationship needs to be a part of any belief in God. Being able to sit and ponder on God or even to hear God speak is important for our growth. In my case, being able to sit and ponder and hear from Jesus gives me the ability to grow in my trust of Him.
I know we need community but it’s important to sit and have a relationship with God. It’s the same that can be said about kids, friends, and spouses. We need personal time alone in order to get to know this being better.
This is the end
In conclusion, none of this may be groundbreaking but still thoughts that I’ve had through my process of getting my thoughts straight. I’m on a journey to hopefully discover and understand God more each day. I don’t claim to be right or even really know all the answers but this journey is definitely teaching me to let go of things and embrace the journey. I suggest if you are in the process of deconstruction to take time and work through it because you will come out better for it.
