Christianity Defined (Guest Blogger)
Guest Blogger: Megan Poole, High School Senior
Definition: Love God, love people
I grew up in the South, surrounded by Christians, traditional Baptist churches, and proper southern decorum. I’ve spent my Sundays at church and weekdays at a private school. My life has been pretty average, nothing super special. I’ve grown up in a Christian family that encouraged my relationship with Christ, taught the Bible, and taught me to love everybody, yet it is of the latter that I really want to talk about.
What I’ve been struggling with is this- does being a real Christian mean judging others and disassociating myself from those who live a different lifestyle from me, how is my representation of Christ put into action, and why have we made Christianity become only what our society will allow?
I’ve come to the realization that my faith is some much more than serving God and going to church a lot. The bible is all about love, which is what others need to see, not just the people we feel comfortable with. It’s about loving the person that is different or doesn’t fit the norm. Jesus was all about loving the people that were the outcasts like the prostitutes and tax collectors. This problem that has developed in the area we live in effects us, even when we think it doesn’t, because believe me, I thought I was a very open minded individual, yet I would catch myself slightly judging and removing myself from the “sinful” people. It’s just something that our culture pushes. Here in the South, everyone sticks to tradition and decorum. We don’t mind being a limited Christian. We don’t have a problem with going to a homeless shelter and serving lunch or praying with a peer after school. We do, however, have a problem with loving and showing great compassion to someone who believes in evolution, or someone who is gay, or a teenage girl who got pregnant. This is the ultimate problem.
Being in the dance world, I interact with all sorts of interesting people, including many homosexuals. Of course, I knew that I should love the sinner and hate the sin; that I should accept them as a person and help guide them on the path of righteousness… You know all of that. The problem was, that I was silently judging them every day. I was very polite and cordial to them, but I never want to have deeper conversations with them, and to be honest with you, I really just wanted nothing to do with them.
As this idea of loving the sinner became more and more pressing in my life I decided to give them a chance. I started befriending one of my gay friends. At first I hated it. I was interacting with someone who the rest of the girls looked down upon and I was silently judging him the whole time, which was just awful. The more I got to know him, the more I understood where he was coming from. I found out that he grew up in a poverty stricken home with several other brothers and sisters. From a very early age he loved to dance, but his father pushed him to play sports with his other brothers. He played any and every sport as a child, yet he hated every single one of them. His father died when he was about 10, and he had to grow up really fast in a family that struggled to get by each month. With so much hardship in his life, I began to have compassion for him and kind of understand where he was coming from. It became more and more easy to love him like Jesus does. While I’m not endorsing homosexuality, I’m totally endorsing loving him, which is something that was completely out of my range not long ago. Christianity is simple- love God, love people.
Let us know what you think about the blog… Post a thought below!
April 15th, 2010 at 3:50 pm
great blog sis! i think i need to test my faith. i often judge people @ school and don’t even get to know them before i go and judge them by how they act or how they look. i have had people be judgmental to me so i know how much it hurts, so we shouldn’t judge others.
April 16th, 2010 at 6:27 am
I never gave much thought to loving the sinner but hating the sin.In my family,almost everyone is proud/self-righteous, like, yeah, i have problems, but I am no where near as bad as that-fill in the blank.So,”naturally” I tend to not even think about the sin and I just focus on judging the person sinning and I don’t give a second thought to what they might be going through.For example,there was this girl at driver’s ed that nobody wanted to sit with, talk to etc, so,I felt kinda bad for her,(there is that self-righteous pity,I must confess)so I decided just to talk to her.At first it was kind of strange,with people looking at us and whispering, but eventually she started talking about animals(pretty safe topic)and different ways to train them(I could talk about that four hours)so she turned out to be really nice,and kinda lonely,and I actually started enjoying her company. I have typed way more than my fair share now, so
Yes, I think Christianity is simple, but I think that sometimes it can be not so simple when you actually have to decide to do it, love the sinner but hate the sin:) I’m done now! great blog Megan!
April 16th, 2010 at 12:08 pm
Megan, great insight! Thank you for sharing, especially about the journey the Lord has you on with your friend who is practicing homosexuality. I’m reminded that Jesus hung out with tax collectors, prostitutes and other less than popular folks. He spoke the truth to them…but He spoke the truth in love. Sounds like that’s what you’re doing and what a great way to prepare for college!
April 16th, 2010 at 12:20 pm
I really liked this Megan and it is also something I have had to work really hard on.
April 19th, 2010 at 10:17 am
love is a hard thing to give people who you don’t know, but when you take the time to get to know the person you find that you have things in common. I met a girl at a friends birthday party and as it turned out her name it Rachel Elizabeth (my name), she’s the second oldest of 6(like me),and she is in my karate class. Creepy, huh? so take a chance, be bold, and make a friend or two.