Who Hurt You?

Many of our experiences are colored with pain. It's easy to allow the pain to affect our choices and change the course of our lives. Some have turned completely away from Christ because of the actions of Christians. If this is you, keep reading...

If you're reading this it's possible that you've either experienced church hurt or are highly offended by my post and are ready to dig in.

As I write these words I think about all the times that I've been hurt by the words and actions of someone that I expected more from. What do we expect from Christians? Short answer: "to be like Christ". Matthew 22:35-40 says it best, "Jesus said unto him, thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and will all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it. Thou shall love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments hang the law and the prophets." What does this look like? Have we ever seen anyone do this?

Some of us can't even comprehend true love because we've never actually experienced it. It's difficult to give what we've never received or what we don't have. Our expectations are completely and totally connected to our ideals. It's hard to love a God that we can't see. It's even harder to love those we can see and don't meet up to our expectations of what Christians should be.

Truth is you're going to meet some really nasty and cruel people, some of them Christians. All of them humans, just like you. I'm not suggesting that we overlook bad behavior, instead I challenge you to look up rather than out. Look at Christ independent of the imperfect humans that serve Him. God knows their hearts and intentions. He also knows your heart and intentions.

He is reaching out to you. He is saying, look at Me, child. I am your example. Search My Word and I will guide you and put the right people in your path to guide you. He is faithful. If you commit to building your relationship with Him, He will be faithful and give you discernment and guidance to best serve Him. Don't walk away from your Creator, the Lover of your life, because of the actions of those who misguidedly hurt you.

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