A long time ago in a land far, far away was a group once known as The Way. At first, they thought their leader was crazy, insane even; for he was preforming acts that his fellow people thought ridiculous, sinful even. He touched the untouchables (which he could have acquired their flesh eating disease), wasn't afraid to be seen with whores, faggots, adulterers, and the possessed. For you see, he offered the a better way. He knew they were hurting; talked about the awkward situations that lead them there; and showed them hope, love, redemption and then told them they were anew (a new creature); thus a blank slate in which they could start a new story.
After the teacher left, his students finally realized that this guy was the real deal. They started doing the same things he did. Offered hope to many, healed a few people, and even wrote letters to others encouraging them.
Here is one such thought that one student offered a few recruits: I was chosen to explain to everyone this mysterious plan that God, the Creator of all things, had kept secret from the beginning. God's purpose in all this was to use the church to display his wisdom in its rich variety to all the unseen rulers and authorities in the heavenly places.
So here is his thought broken down: I was told by the Maker to share this great, mysterious plan with you and here it is! It involves riches and wisdom on how to make this broken world a better place. And I know you can't do much, but I think you might be able to work something out with Him to make it work.
This message is truly, truly awesome and offers more than I will ever know!
All throughout history, people of The Way have had great ideas, and even a few have worked!
Fast forward to today and Here is the dilemma:
We of The Way (if you haven't guessed, I am talking about Christianity) have gotten the teachings of our leader out-of-whack. Whereas we have great ideas to accomplish desperate tasks,
But sadly, they are few and far between. (I wish one day to be considered as one who does these things and brings hope to everyone)
Instead of putting our God-given abilities into action, we instead pull out our double edged swords and quickly go to work condemning everyone that doesn't fit our view of "righteousness". (Did we somehow forget that we were once damned to Hell as well, but God reached down, forgave us, and gave us a new slate so that we can write a better story together?)
So stop. NOW. For the world's sack, and for that of Christianity.
As most of the world falls apart and the remainder in ruins, we tend to fight amongst ourselves, have theological debates trying to map the God-genome project, and lash out at the lost world for being....wordly??? Well how else are they supposed to act? ha. As the world is desperately looking for answers, we go to the ball games and yell at the umpires for making calls we don't agree with. We argue with Joel Osteen via TV, Twitter, Facebook, local churches while the bigger problem is right across the street, the next lot over, or a phone call away with friends/family are dealing with suicide (we know but don't intervene because they aren't of the same denomination).
Real life tragedy # 1. When the Christian sub-culture put Rob Bell on blast, there happened to be a tsunami in Japan, in which thousands of people died. Which were you more passionate over? Or should I say, which did you spend more time thinking about and acting upon? Going over seas to help/sending supplies or ranting over Facebook, Twitter, Wordpress, etc about someone who believes different than you.
Tragedy # 2. Much controversy has gone on over the 2012 Olympics, some even life threatening. A massacre happened in Colorado a few weeks ago. Wild fires are breaking out in our country, destroying many people's hopes and dreams. And on a more personal note, my childhood friend's family was torn apart earlier this week. Instead of praying and giving of our time and money, where is our attention? Chic-fil-A, showing the LGBT community that we abhor them and want them to go to a burning hell while buying one chicken sandwich at a time!
Why?
Please stop.
These actions aren't furthering the Kingdom at all.
I know I don't have the answers to world peace and world hunger. I don't know how to cure AIDS and cancer. I haven't even read the whole Bible, much less memorize the Roman Road. And I will confess that I have taken part of condemning the lost. But let us all consider one thing. As Paul stated we have been given a great message to show everyone. Life. Love. Peace. Joy. Laughter. No more sin. What are we doing in order to take the Kingdom of Heaven by force? The answer for most of us: Nothing.
This is tragedy # 3 for the sake of this rant.
And what, if anything, are we doing stop to these tragedies?
