During quarantine, people took the time to reflect on their lives and discover what they could change about themselves and began to work on those areas. Some people lost weight. Other people wrote books. Some people found a new job or a new hobby. Other people quit a job that had a toxic environment and others quit their bad habits. Whatever we do, we have to come to the realization of facing the truth in our lives; however, many of us have been programmed to avoid the truth, so we carry that mantra into our adulthood and our entire lives.
Since most of the country is now open, violence is up in most major cities. It is not that people choose to be violent, but that they struggle to face the truth about themselves that become revealed when they are around other humans. Self-reflection is a mental health activity, but if we just reflect and not have any action to it, we are avoiding the truth that we need to face.
Like so many other people, I have struggled to face the truth that I am not just a victim of the church hurt, but that I have also hurt other people. The truth is that I had focused so much on myself, that I lost the vision of focusing on Christ to guide others to him. Along with realizing that I have hurt people, I also have had to face the truth that my response to hurt was not always healthy for me and for others, and yet I continued to respond with the same response in the situations, and I would continue to get hurt. This occurred in relationships outside of the church too.
The church, like many other institutions, needs to face the truth that for decades, we have not represented Jesus. We have been a good representation of rules, regulations, and rituals, along with righteous behavior, but we have not represented Christ because as we were following the rules, we did not leave room for love. If we want to truly represent Christ, the church needs to love other people with the love that Jesus has for them. There is no room for excuses.
The church cannot shout and scream about the behavior of other people who do not follow Christ and yet condone the actions of Christians who do the exact same behavior. We need to face the truth that sinners attend church, no matter what faced they wear when they enter the doors on Sunday. This misrepresentation of Jesus has tarnished the church, not Jesus. Those of us in the church need to realize that we must change in order to represent Christ.
Change is difficult for everyone. I realized a few months ago, that as much as I claim that I love change, there are areas in life in which I do not love change. If we want to grow, or dare I use the phrase, “Go deeper,” then we must change. We not only need to change our behavior toward other people, but we also need to change our hearts show that we can reveal genuine love to people.
So, as we come together as a country and the church to battle sin, we must be truthful with ourselves and change. anything worth doing, will take time, hard work, and being honest with ourselves and others. Without truth, we cannot stand. We must be and speak the truth.
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