In 2006 I took a year off from Christianity. As bizarre as it might sound I turned my back on a God I knew was real and a faith that had given me hope for my whole life. I was tired of Christians and church people. I spent the year wandering, snowboarding and trying to control my life. I went from an employee at big ministry to a bum in a ski town. It was a dramatic transition.
During my year away from the church one thing that changed in me dramatically was the way I treated people. When I was church going Christian I was quick to judge, fast to label and very intolerant of different opinions and belief systems. I had become the very thing I was turning my back on: a judgmental Christian. Christian churches and the people that attend them can do a very convincing job of training you to act, behave and believe a certain way. After a lifetime in the church and being around church people I had become numb to the attitudes and tendencies that protruded in all the aspects of my life.
Spending a year outside of the regular routine of church and church people opened my eyes to how narrow my scope had become. I am so grateful for the time I spent with people of different backgrounds, beliefs and value systems. I like to think that during that year it helped me to really understand what I believe and why I consider it important. When I finally found my way back to church I was welcomed with open arms into the community of grace I still call my church family.
If I had not stepped away from the church I don’t know where I might have ended up or who I would have wounded in the process. But I am so glad God had a different road for me. I believe that we, the people, are the church. I believe it is our job to be dispensers of grace not just judges of character and conduct. Yes we need to do both, but I have found that far to many people spend more time on the judging of character than the dispensing of grace. When I typed this yesterday I said we need both judge and give grace, but we should spend a lot more time on the grace side. That is not what I really meant. I meant to say that we need to give grace, but we also need to help hold each other accountable, be there for people when they are hurting and stand beside them through all of life’s ups and downs. But unfortunately it didn’t come out that way, so I thought I would stop back by and clarify.
Who do you need to dispense some grace to today?
