The Problem with Christianity

I'm sure you read the title of this blog post and thought, "wait what? You're a Christian!" and I am, and I wholeheartedly believe in God and His promises, but I also realize that despite His perfection, humans are full of imperfections. 

I overheard a conversation at the nail salon last week that really got me thinking. Two women were discussing their recent moves to the south and the culture shock that occurs between the North and the South. One woman said to her friend, "now remember, you're in the Bible Belt. These people walk into an institution once a week and then think they're holier than thou. They talk the talk, but don't walk the walk." Hearing this woman say that is not the first time I've heard it; in fact, before I became a Christian, I often thought those things too. And that's the problem with Christianity, it's easy to talk the talk without walking the walk. Being a Christian is hard work. You may read that and laugh, but it is. As a Christian, a certain level of perfection is expected. I am expected to have it together, be nice to everyone, never struggle, etc. That's actually the one thing about the perception of Christianity that annoys me, and I work to break that stereotype through my blog. I want you to see that being a Christian means I still struggle, get angry, lose my temper, get annoyed, and cry in self-pity, BUT in all of that I work to turn to God and point glory to Him. I do not always succeed, but I try, and I have seen this approach to living a Christian life prove successful in reaching non-believers.

It's no secret that I love to read, and I read a lot of Christian books as well as works "traditional" works of fiction. I get frustrated with these self-help Christian books though, because none of these authors seem to "go there," and particularly the women authors don't. These amazing women of God talk about overcoming obstacles, but tip-toe around the actual sin they've faced. In fact, the only female author who has been up-front with her struggles is Mary Beth Chapman (wife to Christian singer Steven Curtis Chapman). As I've stated on here before, I want to write a book one day to help young girls learn about God and the tough things we, as women, face in this society, as well as the difficulties of growing up in our culture while trying to maintain a godly life. In the book I'm reading right now, the author talks about how she struggled with living a set-apart life, particularly when it concerned sexual sin, but also discusses how she "a lot," but not "technical sex." Now that's fine and dandy, and I appreciate her vulnerability, but then she just talks about how it was difficult to flee from that temptation, but never gives tangible aspects of how she fled from it, other than remaining in on a Friday night. But, she also mentions that Christians have to live a set-apart life but not in complete seclusion. Now, my head is spinning thinking about all of that. 

I work hard to be vulnerable. There are a lot of things I've struggled with that are large parts of my testimony, but I'm not comfortable sharing with the world just yet. However, I know that someday I will be. I'm also not far enough removed from some situations to share, and those situations involve other people. And some of it I'm still working through. You sure bet though that when I write that book to help young teens everywhere that I'll be honest about it, because it will also be about 15 years from now and no one will know the people I refer to, except for a few close friends. I do my best to be vulnerable on this blog, and in my every day life. I realize I'm being a little bit of a hypocrite, but I'm also not writing a book right now nor am I a professional author (yet). 

Satan has been attacking me a lot lately, and in my attempts to ward off my anxiety and his attacks, I turn to scripture and work to memorize it. Lately, the one verse that keeps coming to mind is Matthew 16:24, "Then Jesus said to his disciples, 'Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.'" So, the true weight of this verse hit me. We, as Christians, often talk about dying to self and living in God, and how this verse calls us to do this, but as I was reading this the other night, the word cross stuck and out something just clicked. I always thought of picking up my cross as picking up my burdens and following Christ, knowing that the burdens would lessen along the way. But no, picking up my cross means picking up my death sentence essentially. Not in a morbid way, but picking up my cross means dying to myself. Christ died on a cross, and I, too, must die on my cross. And, just like Christ, I will live an eternal life by dying on that cross. I hope this makes sense because it was a huge epiphany to me. I do not live my life for me- I live it for Him. Christians often use this verse as an example for how to live a life, and it is, it is one of the best scriptural examples, in my opinion. However, we don't let the weight of it sink in. So, let it sink in. We must die to ourselves in order to live a Christ-like life. Being a Christian is almost like dying every day, because every day we make a choice to die to self; every day we make a choice to live like Christ; every day we surrender our hearts and allow God to fill in the gaps. 

The problem is not with Christianity as a whole, but the problem lies in individual Christians and our ability to become of the world. The beauty of all of this though, is that picking up our cross may be scary and heavy, but it can be done, and knowing that every Christian must do the same thing means that you're not alone. You're never alone. 

Smile, God loves you!