If you didn't already know this, every one is irreversibly screwed up; Christians, Muslims, agnostics, atheists, gays, racists, your mother, your best friend, that dude that just gave you the finger for going before him in the four-way. EVERYONE is messed up. There are no exceptions.
So why do we, all of us, have this completely backwards view that for some reason people who say they stand for a higher cause have to be that higher cause? Why is it, if I say I believe in God that suddenly I have to be perfectly emanating every attribute of his Holiness?
You hate church because of the hypocrites. You are against drinking alcohol because of all the drunks. You won't go green because of the psycho-hippies. When are we going to realize that our choices cannot depend solely on the humans we observe? News flash! Churches are not just full of hypocrites, they're full of human beings. Yes, I'm held to a higher standard because I profess to be a Jesus lover but does that mean I'm perfect? No! The exact opposite. If I was perfect I wouldn't need God. THAT'S. THE WHOLE. POINT. I cannot be God.
God is not who you see. God is not the pedophile priest, the father that has been MIA for 27 years, the book labels and televangelists shouting curses and warnings of Hell. He's not your respected pastor, or your loving grandmother, or prosperity gospel preacher, either. He is GOD for heaven's sake! THERE IS NONE LIKE HIM. Not a single person. We are not to look to the humans of this wack job world to accurately portray the God of the cosmos.
This is not a write off though. As a professing Christian, I am purposefully proclaiming to the world that I represent the God of Heaven. Here's where 'hypocrite' will be thrown in my face. But let me make a point. If an American ambassador has characteristically unpatriotic opinions of our nation, one does not immediately accuse America of being a treasonous, hell hole. In turn, it only makes sense that you can't judge a God by his pastor.
I came across this author recently that I have come to simply adore. I haven't finished a single one of his books, and I've watched just one movie of his but I feel like this man has got it right. Donald Miller tells his story with honesty unmatched in Christian culture. Something he said in Blue Like Jazz (the movie) just got me really thinking. We as "real" Christians can't live like we're better than those who have scarred the name of Christ for someone. We can never out shine the darkness with being cool and acceptable in today's culture. We, as Christians, can't like harmonize with an out of tune world in efforts to rewrite it in the proper key. We are the issue.
All we can do is apologize, forgive and keep trying.
