Over the last several years I have had more bizarre and frustrating experiences when dealing with church life and situations than I care to recall. If there is one thing that I have learned in the midst of all of it, it is this: I cannot change people. I have been incredibly frustrated over the state of the church - especially the charismatic church - primarily because God is not portrayed as a good Father but instead as a legalistic, judgmental and controlling sociopath in many circles. Gods justice is heralded loud and proud while the demonstrated love and power of Christ is notably absent and instead replaced with repetitive worship music that sounds more like the songs of a desperate orphan than a satisfied son. The very plain words of Jesus are often completely discarded regarding many issues because the words of Christ so frequently fly in the face of popularly held religious traditions. Keeping those traditions alive makes a small handful of power-brokers in the church system a whole lot of money. Either way, Im at a point in my life where I have been choosing to focus on the only person that I can change: me. I have a choice every moment of every day as to how I am going to respond to the things that I see and perceive to be in need of dire repair. I have a choice to make every second that someone does something that has the potential to offend me as to whether or not I am going to pick up that offense and carry it around with me. And Im the first to admit that Ive done that with a lot of things throughout my life - just like you have. I took our website down because I feel that I have outgrown the Revival or Riots brand so to speak - and also because I have chosen to focus on living my life and looking at things that matter most to me: family, love, writing, art, and leaving a lasting legacy and inheritance for my childrens children. Its a weird thing to realize that things that I have done and written have spread to so many people in such a short period of time. Our website had close to half a million hits on it since 2009. Whoa. I have learned through all of this that it is not my responsibility to change people. My responsibility is to share my perspective - and trust that the rest is up to God. I have chosen to trust that the goodness of God will triumph over evil. I have chosen to trust that it is His job to lead people into all truth, not mine. I plan at some point to release some of my writings in book form - but I do not yet know when that will be, as Laura and I are focusing on establishing our business endeavors and working to get rid of the obnoxious student loans that I picked up several years ago. I cannot stress enough to anyone who reads this how cancerous and evil that debt is. Get rid of it as soon as you can. Solomon was right - the borrower is slave to the lender. Away with the nonsense that thats just how things are - so change them by changing you. Live your life in such a way that the people around you sit up and take notice that theres something different about you. Thats how I got started with this crazy journey in the first place - and after years of crazy, frustrating, amazing, bizarre, intense experiences, I can say that Im doing my best to focus on the foundations of my faith and ignore the fringe things that can so easily ensnare us if we arent careful. Let your love shine. You are the light of the world because you are one with Christ. Light doesnt have to believe it is light before it illuminates the world around it. You shine whether you realize it or not. Surround yourself with people who champion the light in you - and trust that when you encounter those with whom you know are deceived, or believing lies, or whatever...that it is not your job to lead a crusade to getting everyone to believe like you. It is your job to love and let the fruit of your life speak for itself. Cheers.
Posted on: Mon, 11 Nov 2013 20:53:25 +0000
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