I am done with useless cynicism.
I am done with hating.
I am done with fruitless frustration.
I am done with whining and pointing fingers.
I have been doing a lot of thinking lately about the point of this blog and why we share. I do not desire at all to detract from any of the other contributor's amazing and challenging posts, but I feel an apology is in order, if only from me.
The point of this blog is not to wash our hands of, declare hatred for, or even protest the church. I firmly believe that every one of the authors here genuinely love the body of Christ. The apology that I desire to extend is from myself and hopefully something that many others can relate to and support.
I am done being "done with" the church. I am done with forgetting the truest purpose and intent of my heart, which is to love the church.
I am very aware of the truth that we are broken. Christians, the church, our theology, our traditions, our everything. We are broken. There is a lot that we need to be rebuked in.
I am done with forgetting the whole recipe for the rebuke we are called to as Christians, something done in both truth AND love.
I have forgotten the love and in doing so have done an injustice to the truth that cannot stand without it's partner.
This doesn't at all mean that I am done with this blog. This means that I am done with missing the true intention and God seeking purpose of it, to challenge and bring out the misconceptions and the places that we all fall short, to be done with the mistakes within our own hearts.
I am done with not showing the church the grace that I desire to be shown by it.
I am done with being "done with",
-joe
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If you would like to write for/contribute to this community, send an email to:
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jeff.goins@gmail.com
Monday, September 29, 2008
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2 comments:
this is so "on-time" i can hardly believe it. in the last comment i left, i shared the struggle i have even going to church anymore as of late. all my life i've been afraid of being rejected, and it seems like ever since i've started thinking for myself as an adult, i've felt like i didn't agree 100% with the things i'd heard and been taught all my life. that's fine--unless you start worrying about everybody's opinion of you.
needless to say, that was the trap i fell into, and it made me pull away from everybody to avoid the rejection (which may never have happened anyway). and all the while, it was slowly turning to pride that i somehow knew the truth that nobody else was aware of (or something like that). and then i wondered why i felt so lonely.
tonight i felt like i was reminded that i am supposed to love God's people--whether they like me or not, whether they reject me or not. i need just as much grace as they do, and my separatist attitude was hurting everybody.
so, Joe, i too am done with being done--in any sort of a sense that makes me pull away from the ones that are supposed to be my Family. whoever doesn't love their Christian brother or sister, doesn't know and love God (1 John 4). and i want to love.
Excellent point:
"I am done with not showing the church the grace that I desire to be shown by it."
...cause I definitely need LOTS of grace!
And as much as I've been hurt by institutional church, I've also be loved a whole heck of a lot more...a thousand times more!
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