If you have been a Christian as long as I have, you long for the simplicity of faith that once accompanied your childhood church days. Where there weren't questions that couldn't be answered with a simple, "pray about it", or "God loves you" and there weren't big words like sanctification that we had to understand. Faith, belief, and the love of God weren't something that you couldn't understand, they just were a part of who God was and who you were.
As you get older you realize that most adults, just need to have the mind of a faithful child. Albeit simple, the truest form of authenticity. Where we aren't afraid to ask big questions or try new things or grow or do anything that might require a new level of being that we just needed to understand. The more I realize the deeper relationship that I want have or achieve is really just about going back to basics. It's about rediscovering your roots, recognizing your flaws or insecurities, and embracing them. Reconnecting with the simplest truth and embracing the deepest part of faith and that is in loving others as Christ did for us.
I often wonder what would happen if we just loved each other, flaws and all. Loved people we didn't like until we actually might like them. How would the world change? I think we can fundamentally change the world that way. Then all the world will know the Christ that we do, we would be the compasses directing people to Him. All the words and concepts that come along with being a true believer would then fall into place: we would forgive easily- because we love the people who have hurt us. We would extend grace- because we love the people who are different from us. We would be sanctified with the saints- because we loved people enough to show them the only way to him. Favor would rest on our shoulder- because we loved others because He first loved us. Truth would be spoken- because even though we might not agree, we still love others enough to speak over the lies that they have been told. Think about how the walls would come down- doors would be opened, if we just get past a stigma of legalism that has tainted the church for centuries.
My faith journey started before I was born- in a rejoicing mother's heart as she shared with other children about miracles. It was grown in the church, rooted in love and a deep seeded loyalty to care about those around me.
Today, I see the great evidence of His hand on my journey- my journey to try to understand a God who just loves me. Loves me enough to pursue me, loves me enough to die for me when He didn't have to. I am thankful that I have always known Him in some form, though I didn't always understand what having a relationship meant- how to actually do it. I've search for redemption in the waters of (multiple baptisms), as if believing in that act alone would make me know Him more, but all the time not understanding that I already knew Him. In His infinite love for me, He dropped His Confident truth into my life last summer, right when I needed Him too. So, when I was twelve years old, I committed my life to Him in a Confirmation Ceremony. All those consequent baptisms, confirming that choice. Satan tried to convince me that I wasn't really saved all those years, but in my quiet times with God He's made me know that His had has always guided me and that simple faith still exists inside.
This all to say, when life gets complicated or you become overwhelmed with the task of being a Christ follower- just remember LOVE. It's at the core of everything. Once that is rooted in our hearts, as simple as it sounds, it overflows to those around us. Change abounds if our hearts know love and share it as freely as we are given it.
1st John 4:7-8
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