Shipwrecked Faith

Sometimes I think about the state of Christianity, and I see all of the positive things. Those positive things make me feel really good and happy and confident.

Other times, like today, I see lots of negative stuff and, simply put, sad things about people that profess to be Christians, and it hurts. In the back of my mind, I have a nagging fear that I am being overly religious or judgmental. But, judging by these feelings, it doesn't seem like a prideful or haughty attitude that is meant to belittle others or make myself look invincible.

Today, I feel hurt.

I look at the lives of several people who say they are Christians, but simply cannot be so. Friends of mine that have just floated to God-knows-where in their beliefs and practices. Maybe you will read this and think that I have no right to say that about people, and that I am missing my own flaws and elevating myself, and that the journey is beautiful, and I agree to some extent. It's hard to speak this way, because it automatically triggers this weird connotation that people just don't like. I am not claiming my own superiority or greatness. In fact, I feel a sense of guilt over my own sin as I write this, knowing that I am more than deserving of devastating punishment for my foolishness.

However, I look out on the horizon of "Christianity" and can't help but see some people who have fed their own ears, minds and passions with ideas, philosophies, and blasphemous claims about God. So much so that they would die for what theologian X said about God or what they would like to believe about Him.

All I can do is have faith in the grace and power of a sovereign God that will shatter false ideologies and blind us with the glorious light of the gospel.

"I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom: preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching. For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths. As for you, always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry."

- 2 Timothy 3:1-5

I feel like I could keep talking about this for a while, but I don't want you to lose interest in what I am saying...