What do you do when you have come to believe that struggling to change people for the better and influence them for Christ is a lost cause? What do you do when you have become so cynical and jaded that your own Christian walk has stopped—not regressed, but not gone forward, either? What do you do when you feel so bitter toward people that you want to just be left alone? What do you do when you want to do something about it, when you want to change and get back to a vibrant relationship with Christ, but when you also want to just say, “Forget it—it’s not worth it?” What do you do when you feel like you have no one close to look up to, no mentor, no older and wiser and more mature Christian into whose footsteps to fall? What do you do when the conflict and tension inside is so great that it feels like you are goign to burn alive and that it feels like you are going to explode? What do you do?
Tags: christianity, cynicism, doubt
| QUOTE |
“I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.”
– Mahatma Gandhi
“If all Christians acted like Christ, the whole world would be Christian.”
– Mahatma Gandhi
-QuoteEnd-> |
I was talking with a colleague the other day, and she was telling me about the professor that she has that has made his dislike for missionaries clearly known. In fact, he works a statement of his distaste into nearly every lecture. This bothers her because she has a missionary background, and her professor knows it.
Similarly, I’ve had discussions with others about why they despise Christians and Christianity. The reasons they’ve given me are legitimate and just—Christians can be some of the coldest, most judgmental, most condescending people on the face of the planet, both to unbelievers and to one another. Naturally, this turns a lot ofpeople off to Christianity.
To be honest, this is something I have struggled with and continue to struggle with. Why are the very people who are called to a higher calling and who claim to be the people saved by grace unwilling to extend that same grace to others? It makes me ashamed sometimes to be called a Christian and to be associated with others who call themselves Christian. I find it so much more difficult to share my faith when the initial reaction is one of disgust, hatred, and
bitterness. I admit, I’ve become cynical toward Christians. At least unbelievers are honest regarding what they are about.
Tags: animosity, christianity, cynicism, ghandi, hatred
The problem of evil in the world has always been one that has tested men’s faith. And not just their faith in God. We’re also talking faith in people, faith in institutions, faith in the power of good to overcome evil, and so on and so forth. Yes, there is a LOT of evil in this world, a lot of it. But on the other side of the formula, there is also a lot of good. It is just that evil tends to be louder, more flamboyant. People notice it much more quickly than they do the good things, and they make a bigger deal out of it. Our media is partly to blame for this, of course, but so are we. I mean, how often do you find yourself gossiping with someone else about some big story you heard? You know, the one about the woman who left her husband because she was sleeping with an artist and decided she loved him more than her husband. Or the one about the husband who ran down his wife in their front yard with the family minivan. With their 9-year-old daughter in the passenger seat. Isn’t it so easy to talk about these things? Don’t they inspire a lot of conversation? Don’t they incite some of your baser passions? Don’t they excite you in some horrifying manner of disbelief and shock? And isn’t it so easy to become cynical about people, to question how a supposedly loving God can allow such horrendous things to happen to such (seemingly) good people? Isn’t it so easy to let such horror and pain and suffering—and yes, evil—quench our faith just a little? And then, one day, you find that you have become so hardened in your heart that you wonder why you had any faith to begin with. We have forgotten the good things. We have forgotten that there really is a God who loves and cares and who hurts to watch these things happen to the creatures made in his likeness. It was never meant to be like this. It was meant to be a perfect world. But God in His sovereignty did not want a mechanical love from His creation. So, He gave us free will, and we chose to forsake Him, accepting the consequences of that decision. And now sin and evil exist, for a season, and we must bear that. Soon, though, all will be made perfect again, and sin and death will be no more. Pain and suffering and sadness will be wiped away, and it will be like they never were. Until that day, we must walk strong and keep the faith and look ahead, as Paul said, on those things which are before us, forsaking those things which are behind us, plodding on to the goal which He has set before us, therein to be made into the image of the Son. So, keep the faith, my friends, and be encouraged. These hardships we face cannot last much longer, and then we shall enjoy a bliss unlike any other we have ever known.
Amen
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What can I say…. I was inspired....
Tags: cynicism, evil, faith, good-and-evil, love, religion, suffering, the-problem-of-evil
Exhaustion is the bane of my existence. When my body is weary, the whole of me suffers. My mind slags, my heart droops, my spirits resigns. Sometimes, I get depressed. Other times, I get irritatingly cynical. I always get apathetic, and when you want to walk the Christian life well, that is not a good thing. Oddly enough, I tend to think that the first line of defense spiritually is to take of self physically, including plenty of rest and healthy diet. Makes sense, then, why Christ spent so much time tending to the physical of those in need before tending to the mending and restoration of their hearts.
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I think I need to lay off the coffee. Two full travel mugs, and I feel really edgy. Lots of caffeine like that does not agree with me, and since there is a caffeine allergy that runs in my family, I guess I am playing with fire.
Tags: apathy, caffeine, christianity, coffee, cynicism, depression, exhaustion, physical-needs, spiritual-needs
yeah, so i have a cynical side (and today it is expressing itself).... don’t worry….. it passes…...
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Xanga: The Grim Reaper Rejoiceth
If you need a life preserver, just yell.
Tags: cynicism, Humor, non-sequitur
