Some questions have been rolling around in my head today:
- Has anyone come to Christ because of a church protesting military funerals?
- Has anyone come to Christ because of an abortion center bombing or protest?
- Has anyone come to Christ because of an anti-gay post on the internet?
- Has anyone come to Christ because of being told to pick themselves up by their bootstraps while in the midst of poverty?
In contrast:
- How many people have come to Christ because someone supported them in a time of grief?
- How many people have come to Christ because someone showed them love when they felt like they didn’t deserve it?
- How many people have come to Christ because someone befriended them when no one else would?
- How many people have come to Christ because someone picked them up and walked them through or out of their current circumstances?
I am not trying to be political. I am not trying to be religious. I am just trying to follow Christ and His example. And I see things happening in the world according to Christianity that don’t communicate the love of Christ.
This is what the love of Christ looks like:
- A love that eats with tax-collectors.
- A love that forgives adulterers.
- A love that goes to the cross to pay a debt that wasn’t His to pay.
- A love that overcomes death so I can live.
For this reason, I apologize to those to whom people who call themselves Christian haven’t lived up to that name, and I ask that you would not judge us all by the actions of some.
The rest of us just want you to know that:
- You are loved.
- You are forgiven.
- You are special.
- You matter to God, and you matter to us.