Lessons 1, 2 and 3

I've learned a few lessons in my short time here in "blogland".

1) I've learned I should never post anything unless I feel it says exactly what I want it to. I discovered this after posting "The Common Bond". I put pressure on myself to get it posted quickly and in the end I posted it before it said what I wanted to say exactly the way I wanted it to say. It's alright and I don't hate it - but it's not quite right. Impulsively, I almost deleted it - but decided against it - letting it serve to me as a reminder to never post something unless I'm completely satisfied.

2) I've also learned to never compare myself other bloggers. It's not worth it. There will always be someone who can write better, take better pictures, be more creative than me. It could be intimidating enough to make me just throw in the towel and call it quits. Instead I'll allow myself the freedom to simply enjoy the incredible things other bloggers have to offer.

3) I've also learned to allow myself the freedom to be me. If you've looked around my blog you've likely noticed I enjoy delving into to heavier (sometimes even controversial) issues. I feel really strongly that as a whole we as Christians have allowed far too many misconceptions about who we are and what we believe. Even sadder still is that I believe that many of us - myself included - have helped them to foster and grow. I think it's happened largely out of fear. Fear that comes from never having allowed ourselves to wrestle with issues and discover for ourselves what we really believe. And how we should live. We want everyone to know we're just like everybody else. We want to be set apart and long to be relatable. We struggle to know exactly what it looks and sometimes we find ourselves retreating in fear of failure or compromising what we believe in an attempt to be relatable. We get caught up in rules instead of focusing on relationship.

In all honesty, I used to be far too black and white (in my own case this is just simply a nice way of saying legalistic) and have experienced God's grace in my life in some really big ways. So, if the stereotypes we're up against as Christians - ones I've sadly played a role in building myself - can stand in the way of someone coming to faith in Christ, it makes me feel compelled to write about them.I've had to deal with the fact that not everyone will agree with what I say and some might even take issue with it.  

I know I won't always get it right, and sometimes I might even miss it entirely. But, I'm convinced that God has provided a way to be a follower of Christ that is open, honest, appealing, embracing and real - and that it doesn't involve hiding what we really believe. I feel like life is all about discovering exactly what it looks like. Which to me really means allowing Him to show us bit by bit what it looks like and how to truly start living it. Hopefully somewhere between "Make Me Smile Mondays" and the weightier issues I write about, you'll get a glimpse of who I am, who I'm becoming, who I once was and what Christ has done in me.