Jimbo's Jots

It’s funny when people talk about church. We have a young man that is going to school near our home that has asked to stay with us during the week while he is in school. He comes in on Monday, stays a couple of days, then goes home to Flint on the weekends. This past week, he was telling about encounters he has had with some of his classmates regarding church and God.

Recently, I had someone ask me about church. This person was raised in a family of faith. Yet, because of some abuse experienced as a child, has an ongoing struggle with connecting to a church as an adult. It’s because of “them”. People in the church. In his mind, they “put on a show” of goodness only to live a life contradictory outside of the church setting. We would call them hypocrites. They want to connect with God. They want to grow in faith. But “because of them”, they don’t feel they can.

Take another conversation I’ve had with a person in which they talked about people in the church who had helped them and they felt drawn closer in their walk with God “because of them”. They may have been new in the faith or even may have been like the “prodigal”. In the moment of entering a church building, someone gave them a kind word and left them feeling like they belonged. They didn’t see a “hypocrite” in the doorway.

You take two people entering a church building. They will quickly scan the atmosphere and determine internally an opinion of their experience. It’s because of them. Is it fair? Not entirely. Is it accurate? Not completely.

The realization is that we are all hypocrites. I saw a short video in which a pastor said essentially that. “We are all hypocrites. We choose to come to worship and praise God. Sometimes in our everyday life, we will mess up and go against God’s will. This makes us a hypocrite! It’s also the reason why following Jesus is so important. If we weren’t hypocrites, we wouldn’t need Jesus!” Connecting to Jesus lets us celebrate the opportunities to connect to people. We can celebrate Him “because of them”.

Be blessed! Be a blessing to others!!