Real: My current mission in life

I wrote this poem (I usually hate poetry because I feel so lazy writing it, but I was feeling lazy, so it happened).

I want to know

not just for me

for them too.

I want to understand You

all your reasons

even if it's not what we want to hear

I need less talk

less tradition

less fake

more genuine

more mercy

more Real

Real is

fearless

together

shameless

action, not words

Truth...

good

or

bad

So yeah... I'm not really a poet, but this is how I've been feeling for a while. I am not bashing church or anything like that. I'm not an "emergent," and I haven't been reading postmodern Christian authors lately to inspire this quest in my life for reality in my faith. I'm just simply tired of my own laziness. I'm tired of saying something just because I read it in a book or heard it in a sermon. I want to know what all of those "Christiany" words and phrases actually mean, if they mean anything. I want to stop the fluff, stop the "that's just what I've always heard" mess. I want to know because I have pored over my Bible and prayed until I cried and begged God to reveal himself to me. I don't want to lock myself away in my room all day every day and only surround myself with Christians-- that certainly isn't what Jesus did. But if we follow Jesus and other holy people in the Bible, we do see that they made a huge effort to know what God wanted for them, and for most of them, it wasn't what everyone around them liked or wanted to hear. They took time out of their day to be alone with God, and they never hid or downplayed their faith to try to reach someone.

On another note, there is one thing that absolutely dumbfounds me about churches in America, and if you have feedback on this thought (positive or negative), I'd like to hear it. 

Everyday I drive past a church that has these crazy signs like "don't wait to come to church until six strong men carry you there," or "get right or get left." 

Right now, their sign says, "Freedom is never given. It is always won."

What?

It sounds to me like they are no more talking about God than my journalism professors would talk about the immune system of a cat. I may have interpreted the sign wrong, but I read that as saying "Go America! We love our freedom here!" Of course, there is nothing wrong with being an American-- I love it here and I am so glad I am a U.S. citizen. All nationalistic feelings aside though, does Jesus say "Love the Lord with all your heart, and love America too!" No. He says "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments" (Matthew 26:37-40). Let me repeat, I am not anti-American by any means. I just don't see why we waste our time with stuff like this.

Why should we be preaching about guns, or any other political message? I don't think America is bad, but I don't think we're God's favorite people either. I'm not completely anti-gun either, but who cares? What about understanding scripture? What about evangelism?  Our constitution was built on the Christian faith. Our faith was never supposed to be filtered through our constitution. If there is something our government or our citizens do that doesn't jive with God's law and character, which is more important to us? We can argue all day long on whether it's right to ban guns, but in the end, are we arguing on behalf of God's word, or are we arguing based on our preferences? If we are arguing on our preferences, that's fine, but let's not bring God into it unless we really know how he stands on the issues. Before we vilify our fellow Christians based on their country of origin or their stance on war, welfare or any other issue, let's examine our motives. Are we criticizing them because they go against what God says, or are we criticizing them because they go against what our culture says? It is not a requirement worship America or any other nation to worship Jesus. There are Christians all over the world who couldn't care less about the things we so passionately use God to argue about. They're just happy to know him and happy to have been given freedom from sin. 

I think in my case, freedom was never won. I received it from a God whose first priority is saving people who don't earn it.