Walking Wounded
Now a Pastor, Leonard Sweet left the church at 17. He tells us what contributed to his leaving in his book Soul Salsa, “What ignited my deconversion was the church’s funeral spirit, its fussy buttoned-upness. Christians’ stay-at-home-and-pickle-in their-own-juices personalities, their vinegary countenances drained me emotionally, incapacitated me intellectually, and shut me down spiritually. The best I could say was this: by and large, Christians were kind people in a bad mood.”
Divorced, drug addict, gay, smoker, alcoholic, open-minded, or just plain different. It seems like if you are any of the above—and the list could go on and on—you’re oftentimes not accepted at your local place of worship. Maybe you’re just not in the right income bracket, or you just have mucho grande problemos. It seems like people are just looking for any reason to close you out of their elite club.
Just so you know, that’s not what Jesus would do—no matter what those suckers who wore the armbands said! People like you and I are the guys and gals Jesus hung out with. I don’t know how it got all turned around, but it has. Those who turn people away for class, color or sin of any kind have totally missed it. Church should be the one place that you can come and feel completely enveloped in love and completely safe. It should be the place where you can come, share your worst and only get unflinching love in return.
Most of us spend our lives walking wounded because we feel like there’s no one real that we can turn to and get anything besides cliches and pat answers. Don’t do it. There are a lot of turkeys out there, but there are also those who haven’t forgotten that they aren’t near perfect and that we need Jesus as much as you do. As a matter of fact, you and He are all I’ve got.
-Chad
1:43:48 PM 
|
|
