Keeping it Real

It's been a long, hard summer for me. I'm not complaining though. A lot of things changed in my life. I sold my home, bought a new one, and moved in less than 1 month. That was an event I'll never forget. However, I must share how blessed I feel because of this crazy summer.
Winter had been a rough one for me. I was traveling 40 minutes, each way, to get to class, and back home, from Anderson University. On one fateful night while driving home, I encountered a small herd of deer crossing the road, and I didn't have time to stop. I slammed on the brakes, watching in horror as the buck closest to me slammed onto the hood of my van. For that brief moment in time I found myself staring into the eyes of a terrified deer that was on a collision course with my windshield directly in front of me. It seemed like forever as we stared at each other, and suddenly, he was gone. I had stopped, but I knew there was damage that ultimately turned out to be unfix-able. Still, all I could see was the look in the deer's eyes, the terror he felt on that fateful night that took his life.
We never know what's ahead in life. Had I known I would hit a deer that night by taking that route, I most certainly would have taken another. However, it was having careened into that deer, in part, that caused me to put my home up for sale and move closer to the university. As you can see, everything happens for a reason.
Lessons in life can be tough but they do have a purpose. I can't even count the times in life I've been knocked off my feet, literally. Many of those times, I really just wanted to sit there and do nothing, but life continues to move forward, whether we do or not. We have choices. Actually, everything we do in life is a choice. We can choose to sit and wallow in misery when we get knocked down, or we can get up and take the step that will move us forward. I can assure you, the latter is a far better plan.
Many times, we find ourselves feeling alone, weak, hurting, even abandoned. I'm here to tell you that none of these "feelings" are true. We are never alone. There is always a hand reaching out to take ours. Where we tend to mess up is allowing fear to have control of our lives. I realize that fear is a powerful emotion. I've experienced it many times. However, there is a power far greater than fear. That power is faith. Faith in a loving, living God who never leaves us, ever. It's not God abandoning us. We turn our backs on Him. Sadly, this applies to more than unchurched people. There are countless people claiming they love and serve God, and they are quite good at putting on the smiling faces and saying, "hallelujah" during church gatherings. Then they go home. Attitudes change, bitterness, judgement and criticism are at the tip of their tongues. Resentment towards those who “offended” us rears it’s ugly head and we fall back into our routines, and call it moving on with our lives. It’s not.
We who call ourselves followers of the one true, living God should be ashamed of ourselves. How do we dare to make such a claim when we aren’t really following the steps of the teachings of Jesus? How can we say we love Him if we are belittling, gossiping or hurting another, in any way? Truthfully, doing these things won’t make us “unsaved”. But they will hinder our witness. No one wants to hear us talk about the love of Jesus when we’re not showing that we are, through our daily actions and our words. I know this because I’ve been on both sides of it. I have been that person who wasn’t a good ambassador for Jesus, and I’ve been the one who didn’t want to hear the words from a person who had no evidence in their lives that they actually had faith in a living God.
As if that wasn’t enough, I have to address the subject of “shoveling” our beliefs down the throats of others. I’ve also been on both sides of this issue. Don’t get me wrong. I absolutely love hearing the testimony of anyone who has one. But I must admit that when I sit down to spend time with a friend, I don’t want the entire conversation to be about faith and God. Be my friend. Talk to me like we have always done, and don’t shove your religion down my throat. It makes me, and most people, want to cut the visit or phone call short, and fast.
What this world needs is God trusting, people-loving believers who walk out their faith. The people who attend church services, meetings and events, wear crosses or Jesus pins and earrings, who proudly display their “I love Jesus” or “fish” shaped bumper sticker on their cars, or say “praise Jesus” to attract attention to themselves are not going to save souls. Living by faith isn’t about how loud we moan and cry, or praise and raise our hands when people are watching. It’s how we love. Period.
Do you love the people around you? Do you show kindness to the one who irritates you the most? Do you offer to help a friend who just came home from the hospital and may need assistance cleaning or cooking? Do you pray with all your heart for the family who’s loved one is dying, or do you say you will, then don’t?
Let me ask you another question. How can any of us claim to be walking in the way Jesus taught us to if we cannot show love in these simple ways? I’m serious. So many who claim to love Jesus fail miserably at loving themselves, and because of this, we don’t know how to love anyone else they way we’re supposed to. It’s absolutely impossible to love our neighbors if we don’t first love ourselves. It’s also futile to find peace as Jesus taught us about if we can’t even identify who we are called to be.
Walking by faith is exactly what it sounds like. It’s taking a step, believing there is a hand there to hold onto, and stepping out and knowing only “by faith” that a step will appear as we do. Sometimes, we take that step and find we went in the wrong direction. Don't get so stressed out about it. Step out again, by faith, and start over from that very moment. Use the previous "wrong" step as a stone. Let it be a lesson on what not to do, and move forward. It really is that simple. I don't see "mistakes" as mistakes at all. If I did, I would feel like a complete failure at this journey called life. Instead, I look at what happened, see what I can learn from it and keep going.
Take a look back for a moment at your life. What do you see? Good times, bad times, fun and failure all walk hand in hand. Want to know what I see? I see a journey that's full of adventure. Not all of those adventures were good or fun, but that's OK. What I see, is a life well lived, a tapestry of beauty knit together with many threads. I see a life that has brought me to where I am today.
Now, as I continue this journey I have chosen to share from my heart and my personal experiences so that you may look at your journey in a different way. I pray you see the beauty in life. I pray you realize that, even though we all make "mistakes", everything we experience has been designed to bring you to this point, this moment, in your life.
As for those of us who do our best to be an ambassador for Jesus, take a good, hard look in the mirror. Before you criticize your neighbor, your spouse, your child, look at how you are teaching them to act. Your actions do speak louder than words and we need to remember that the children of today are our future. They won't know how to live a life that's loving and generous to others if we don't teach them.
I pray you realize I'm not trying to put anyone down. However, I am trying to point out where changes are needed. We are all in this together. We all have a journey to take, and no 2 journey's are the same. Step out, show love, stop judging, criticizing and complaining and do your best to understand that judging isn't our job. That's God's job. Ours is to Love.
God bless all of you, my friends, family and followers for reading my posts. Feel free to share them with others. And remember, you are never alone, ever. You are loved.