For my 26th year of life, I decided to learn to think. As odd as it sounds, I believe it is very easy (and perhaps even the norm) to make it to 26 (or for an entire lifetime) without really learning to think for yourself and I am not happy to simply exist on the "truths" of other people. I have thought about a lot this year (please forgive me for being a blog slacker, thinking makes me tired- hehe), but nothing has rattled me to my core quite like thinking about my faith.
I have called myself a Christian for quite some time, realizing full well that by identifying with a group I am allowing myself to be identified with the individuals in that group. I was ok with this idea for 15 years or so. But this year I began to consider who I was identifying with (I should stop here to give another shout out to Shane Claiborne's amazing book THE IRRISISTABLE REVOLUTION because I really believe it changed my life) and what their actions (or lack thereof) might be saying about me.
Here is a brief look at my journey into this question (we're getting to the survey part- be patient!):
Q. What is a Christian?
A. A follower of Jesus Christ (I like to keep things really simple when talking to myself)
Q. What would a follower of Jesus Christ look like? (not what color would their hair be, but what would a life devoted to following Christ look like)
A. A follower would strive to emulate the life and love exhibited by Christ while He was on earth (ok ok, my REAL answer to myself was "He would wanna be like Jesus"- don't judge me!)
Q. So what did Christ DO?
A. As far as I can tell, He loved A LOT. He gave all He had to help meet the needs of people in His community, both physically and spiritually. He touched people who were considered untouchable and He loved people who were considered unlovable.
Q. So, let's try this again- what would a Christian look like?
A.
I didn't want to answer the question because I knew I wasn't measuring up. Not only that, but I couldn't think of a single person who I could point to and say "THAT is how Christ would be living!"
And that makes me very sad.
So I'm looking- for a church, a group, or just a few people who give a damn. And it's frustrating.
What is even more frustrating is that the song "My Jesus" by Todd Agnew keeps popping up on my ipod and it is pretty much the theme song for this journey. Here's the video:
So this is the survey- I want to know what you guys think about this.
Do you know Christians who you feel are being Christ in the
community?
Do you think I'm being too critical?
Anybody having a similar frustration?
Wanna recommend a medication that will keep me from playing Q&A games with myself?
I don't need answers, but I would enjoy hearing your opinions :)
