I spent my Saturday night enjoying a Lifetime movie about The Clark Sisters. As I was watching with my best friend, so many thoughts ran through my mind. So many emotions filled my heart. While my ears soaked in the beauty of their voices, they also soaked in the pain in their hearts. As someone who did not grow up in the church, but spent my entire young adult life serving, I recognized so many things that were toxic about Christianity.
Let me be clear, I AM A BELIEVER OF JESUS CHRIST AND CELEBRATE HIS RESURRECTION! I love God, and I am thankful that He loves me too. But, there are a lot of things people say and do in the name of "being saved" that can be completely heartbreaking. I have seen people with titles, mantles, licenses, etc. treat the people closest to them like complete garbage because they did not fit the mold of their religious beliefs. I have seen men and women who carried a heavy mantle. But because of their hurt, they ran. We often criticize and talk about those who are saved and still living in the world. Without taking into consideration how their religious parents and family members may have tainted their view of Christianity. So instead of wanting to cling to God as they grew up, they avoided Him at all costs.
Who would want to be a Christian if their daily experience with Christians were filled with abuse, criticism, codependency, and a lack of love? I probably wouldn't be saved today if I wasn't LOVED into a relationship with Christ. I wonder how differently I would have turned out if I had been harshly criticized, abused, and told that I was difficult to love. If you can't love me, your sister that you can see, then how can you love a God that you cannot see? THAT. IS. BIBLE. My heart aches for those who have only experienced harsh correction from others in the name of Christianity.
People are running from Christianity when we are not loving one another. God is love. And if we are not giving people love, then we are denying them God. As believers we are called to be imitators of God, that means loving people to a place of repentance. That means loving them to a place where they obey the word of God. That means loving them when they stumble. That means loving them when they are rebelling because they are hurting. Remember Romans 8:28. We are not perfect. We are not exempt from being in need of God's forgiveness. We are to love and extend the same grace that we are so freely given.
I pray that we are all able to learn from what we saw in The Clark Sisters' movie, and other movies that focus on Christian families. I pray that we can reconcile with those we have offended with our unhealthy correction and traditions that were rooted in law and not grace. I pray that we can be models from day to day and re-present Christ well to those around us. I pray that people are so amazed at the God they see through us that they ask how they themselves can become saved. We can do better. We will do better.
God Loves You. God Loves US!
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