I am a Christian. Did you know that?
I’m not super involved with my church.
I don’t even go to church every single Sunday.
I don’t read the bible every day.
I’m not always nice. I’m not always happy.
My life isn’t perfect. I am not perfect.
I don’t share my faith as often as I should. I try to live my life to represent the One who created me, but often I fail miserably.
I do believe I am saved by grace.
I do believe God created me for a purpose.
I do try my hardest to pray as often as possible.
I do try to listen to worship music and fill my brain with good thoughts from my favorite radio station KLove.
Lately I feel like I’ve been failing a little bit in my faith life. If you have been reading my blog for any amount of time and didn’t know that I am a Christian, I have failed. If you work with me or know me in person and you didn’t know I am a Christian, I have failed. I am so sorry for not sharing this part of my life with everyone! There is no excuse!
I also feel like I can be too critical of the church and the people in it. We are all human, but I seem to think that all those who go to church should be conducting themselves in a certain way and any sign of the “wrong way” and I get all weird about church. Can anyone relate to that? I know it’s not right, and I know I have plenty of faults of my own, but sometimes it makes it hard for me to get involved in church.
I am also having a challenging time finding a group there that I can relate to. BF and I were part of a bible study for awhile, but it got cancelled. I’m not saying there weren’t others we could attend, but I was just getting comfortable in that group.
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It doesn’t help that I can be painfully shy at times (see my panic before attending Blend Retreat). It also doesn’t help that the summer women’s bible study is going over a book that makes me cringe a little…
I don’t believe we need to go to church necessarily. Really, in the end, I don’t think God will say, “Were you a church member? How often did you attend? How many activities did you participate in?” I feel it is much deeper than that.
If we do all the “right things” and don’t believe in God…what good does that do us? If we try to get everything “just right” and don’t have love for our neighbors….what does it matter? If we volunteer our time until we are worn to the bone, but the work doesn’t come from the heart….does it really help? (We do need to give back, but I think it should come from a want to help rather than adding things to our “heaven resume.”)
Although it’s not required that we go to a church, fellowship with believers is critical. I believe that we are all basically a combination of our past (yes it does affect how we are…even if we don’t want it to) and the people that we associate with the most. What do we want to be like? Are the people we hang out with the best influences on our life decisions? Attending a church can help with that type of fellowship.
If you don’t have that fellowship at this moment, consider doing what I did. Join an online study group.
At the suggestion of Lindsay’s post, I joined the group She Reads Truth.
I just started today (I am about a week behind now), but the bible passages are short and there is a small devotional to go with them.
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The cool thing about this is that you can connect with others who are doing the same bible reading. There is a blog, twitter page and hashtag #SheReadsTruth, and you can also post notes for each reading that others can view.
So far I’m liking it and feel like it’s the first step to getting back “on track.”
I know I will never be perfect, that’s why I need a Savior.
But I do want to try my best to represent the One who made me and loves me so much more than I could ever imagine.
What makes me a Christian? I believe that Jesus died to save me. Me. Before I was even born. How awesome is that?
Are you a Christian? How do you share your faith with others?
As always, you can e-mail me about ANYTHING: semihealthnut AT yahoo. 🙂
