All fun n games until some gets hurt

I take a moment to sit and write a blog post as I have not done so in a while and feel like procrastinating from my 3000 word essay. In truth the essay is actually interesting and easy to write, I am just letting the ideas float in my mind - simmering if you like ;o) 

The past few days have been so packed that looking back I would even say its been like on a roller coaster at times. Up downs, twist and turns. All go! 

I have come to the conclusion that sometimes our minds need time to process our realities, even when our reality is obvious to everyone else. No amount of lecture or explanation will help us to see something until we are ready to see it for ourselves. This is like when I think about truth, my truth and your truth might both be truth, yet seen from different angles. It takes time for my truth to catch up with yours, or more so rather than catching up its about been open with willingness to explore your truth regardless of mine.

… Confused … yeah me too. 

Sometimes its hard witnessing different people actions, words or presence as it leaves me with curiousness to understand the place an action comes from. 

The other day I was taught a lesson, although in the moment all I knew was to react with love. 

In a conversation with a few friends it was getting a bit heated then one let the heated words pierce between her lips of - you people (meaning the Church not me personally) call yourself  Christians!?!

A very bold statement that has so much laying under it. In the moment all I could do was stand there looking into their eyes with a tender message of love. They continue to air their frustration and disappointment. 

Reflecting back Im leaving thinking about the bigger picture, feeling myself question

Why is it we rush to defend God to a broken world, and not race to defend the image of God in the world’s broken?

Why in the world do we spend more time defending God to the critical around us, than defending God to the doubting, critical voices within us?

What if it is not God who needs us to rush to His defence in the world as much as we need to rush to the distress of the broken who carry the image of God into the world?

I can not help feel there is a little imbalanced Gospel happening around me at times. Where some people - including myself - actually live the opposite of social justice with this notion that all too often insisting that the status quo must be God’s default setting, and that upsetting the status quo is threatening, radical or destructive. 

I can not help feel Christians (broad use of the term) do a disservice to the gospel message by removing the cultural context from Jesus’s ministry and watering down his message to one of religious platitudes. After all, lets not forget everyone is created in the image of God and loved by God, we are responsible for identifying the victimised, not rejecting their existence. 

This is why the New Testament goes into great depth detailing the newfound worth given to the Gentiles, slaves and women. These countercultural instructions to believers were radically progressive, to the point where the gospel writers had to put them in writing to make sure they were implemented within the newly formed church. 

I can not help think this is party why believers get freaked out by social justice issues because they falsely see such issues as secular. Some issues - like environmental care, or domestic violence - seem to be exclusively the domain of the secular world. But aren’t those issues important enough to warrant a christian voice? Just the same as individual opinions, suggestions and education important to hold onto and fight for. 

Whoops - a little off point... better jump back on my bike... 

The lesson that was taught was one that the christian meaning of evangelisation is about relationships. When evangelisation is all about conversions, debating of justification or otherwise, we have missed the equation. It becomes objectification. I am not looking at the other person wholly as they are and certainly not how Jesus sees them. 

We need to be relational. We need to know their name and their stories. We need to build friendships that aren't contingent on conversion or justification. We need to build a relationship that says "I care so much about you. Even if you don't ever grow closer to Christ, I will still love you" 

Why? Because Christ tells me, "I still love you" even when we are difficult. (Amen to that!)

Nothing pushes people further away from God than trying to force Him on them. As JPII said, "The Church imposes nothing; she only proposes" 

So, the lesson is to continue to walk! Be patient. Propose the Catholic faith through action. If we are living our religious out as we ought to, people will naturally be attracted to it. They will wonder where this radical love, inexhaustible joy and immense peace comes from!