I am a Christian...Dont Judge Me

I am a Christian.

And just by saying that, I can already feel the tentacles of your judgement putting me into categories of your mind. 

Right wing. 

Pro life. 

Gun crazy. 

Judgmental (even though you're the one judging me right now and all I told you was my faith positioning.) 

...and the plethora of other things that, for whatever reason, your mind thinks when you hear that word Christian.

Let me set the record straight:

I voted for Obama. There goes the right wing business.

I am pro life, however I refuse to be that person with the signs condemning women for a choice that, at the end of the day, none of them wanted to make. That is not the way of my Jesus. 

Furthermore, I cannot with a good conscious say that I am pro-life and be okay with any form of execution or the massacring of young urban guys due to the unchecked volume of violence surrounding them (whether they are actually involved in it or are innocent bystanders). I don't like war of any sort and, beyond self protection, condemn the idea of killing anyone.

My pro-life stance also makes me not a gun advocate, in addition to having lost some loved ones to gun violence.

As far as being judgmental, it is very difficult to be so when you understand who you really are, when you know that you've told some lies, said some things and done some things that you sincerely wish you could erase or take back. It's hard to judge others when you know that your own record is covered in the garbage you've done, and the only difference between you and anyone else is that you've surrendered the rest of your days, indeed your very eternal future, and most importantly, your heart, to a Higher Authority, a God who loved you enough to clear your filthy record using His own blood.

So, I am a Christian. I follow the way of Jesus, who guides me in the path of love for humanity, and teaches me how to combat the things of evil. His example teaches me how to stand against things God calls sin while affirming people who may be guilty of them. He shows me how to hate the sin while still loving the sinner, which most times, is me. He shows me how to forgive, how to grow, and how to live a life overflowing with meaning, purpose, and destiny.

With that being said, to fellow Christians I say:

Show love to the world. Let our faith be living and breathing, not just in the Sunday pews, but in our offices as we work like we are working for God. Let us see every opportunity to show God's love through our actions and kindness. Let us be the living Bible. Rather than merely quoting scriptures, let us LIVE them. Seek justice, love mercy, walk humbly with your God. (Micah 6:8)

And to the rest of the world, I say:

Give us a break, k? Stop asking us to explain everything about our faith and our God as if we could ever figure Him out. Any god that I can figure out is no God at all. And while we will try to explain as much as we can, don't pick on us for the parts where we aren't sure, just like we don't ask you the complexities of the Big Bang (which is a theory) or Evolution (which is also a theory). We don't pretend to know all the answers, but we do know the One who does.

Maybe we should stop forcing Christians to constantly explain themselves. Maybe we should think before we command them to defend the entire body of believers, in the same way it would be unfair and unjust to make one black person represent their whole ethnicity or to make one woman represent her entire gender. I can't do anything about the Salem witch trials, or slavery, or the Crusades, or anything else like that. All I can do is be the best me I can be.

Maybe we should just let Christians be who they are, imperfect people trying to live their lives the best way they know how

...just like you.