I woke a few mornings ago to find a heartfelt and sad post on Instagram. It has occupied my mind ever since and I go from pity, to anger, to sadness, to frustration.
The post was about being burned - shunned really - by a church. The person who shared her story has been devastated and even questions God's goodness and love. She shared her heart with a raw emotion that left me wanting to reach through my phone and hug her.
It's a pity and a shame when people are so righteous and judgmental. It makes me queasy to think of people sitting in God's holy house condemning and turning His children from His love. Steam is coming from my ears.
Seriously, satan can sit back and relax. So called Christians are turning people away from God quicker than his gnarly schemes ever will.
So why does this cause such a stir in me? For one, because we are called to love for goodness sakes! Jesus commands us to love our neighbors as ourselves. We are called to be His disciples and share Him from one end of the earth to the other.
Jesus said to love. Simple concept. Hard to do at times, but to truly love Christ is to truly love others. Period.
The second reason this causes a fire in me is because this has happened to my family. It was terrible and, honestly, when I think about it, it brings back the pain of rejection and hurt.
I have remained fairly quiet about it. It took me a long while to process it and my family suffered so I have never written about it. After reading the Instagram post, I decided it was time to share my story. Too often, we suffer silently and feel we are alone. We believe that no one else can understand or identify with our experiences and pain. Honestly, I hate that. Wouldn't it be so much better to come together in truth and support than stand in the shadows of life pretending all is perfect in our little corner of the world? Life is always so much easier when we are authentic and love on one anther. When we share our hearts, we create opportunities to share and show love. We do life with each other. Often times, people only want to do the pretty parts of life. What is ever gained by that? I'll take deep and dirty over pretty and proper any day. I want to love dirty. I want to walk into heaven knowing I got messy in love. I want to openly and honestly love - even when that means walking through the grit of life. Let's be purposeful in encouraging others and walking in real life together.
My family's story is a story of great pain, deep questions, suicidal thoughts, and God's loving guidance and visions of the promised land. We had the carpet swept out from under our feet so severely that it left our heads spinning. We wandered in the desert looking for
