What if…

So, I wrote a post and shared it with my husband before actually sharing it here , and he thought it was a bit judgmental and critical.  And… it probably was.  I was kind of angry.

I don’t want to be judgmental, I don’t want to be critical. But how do we have learning moments without any critical thinking?  That would feel like complacency to me and in the world we live in right now, I think there is too much complacency already.

I’m going to try to rewrite the post without judgement, without ire, while still trying to get a point across and have a learning moment.  I’m going to try.

My main question, without going into any detail, is when we did start announcing our faith before doing something nice? Before doing the right thing?

Example… Because I’m a Christ Follower, I’m doing whatever nice thing… calling to check on you, donating to the food bank, doing this good thing.

That is a nice thing to do the right thing, the kind, generous, compassionate whatever it is thing, it really is.  But why the announcement first?

What if it had gone like this?

Because I’m an atheist, because I’m a Follower of Mohammad, or Buddha, or Satan, or The Moon, or … You get the picture… What if that was how it had gone instead?

Really, think about it. If you are a Christian or a Christ Follower, how would it have felt? Be honest?  Would you have been offended?  Would it have just set wrong with you?  Maybe not you, but I do know some Christians who would have been like, “They know I’m a Christian, so why would they say that to me? How dare they!”

Honestly, I think we should do the right/decent/kind/compassionate thing because we are decent/kind/compassionate/loving people.  If our faith is influencing that, well, Great!  But I don’t really think that should be the sole reason, and I don’t think we should be announcing it as the reason either.  

I mean if someone asks, “Why are you doing this?”  That’s a little different, if your faith is the only reason, say that then.  But wouldn’t it nice to hear the answer as, because I care about you, or because I love you?  I feel like if someone is going through something and we are reaching out in whatever way, we should make it about them… about helping them, and not about our faith or religion.

Oh, I hear you, what about the whole brining people to… whatever faith… Well, I’m not completely sure that is our purpose in any faith.  

Here’s what I mean.  I’m a Christian.  I know some people believe that it’s our job to bring people to Christ so that they can go to heaven and we can too. 

But what if… what if our purpose was to bring God’s Kin’dom to Earth?  What if our purpose is to make heaven right here, right now?  And what if that had nothing to do with making believers?  What if it had to do with peace, with love, with compassion, with kindness, with all the good things?

Oh, I’m not saying we shouldn’t believe, I’m not even saying we shouldn’t teach others about our faith, I’m just saying that what if bringing God’s Kin’dom (or heaven or whatever you believe in) to earth was more about a way of living than a way of dying or what comes after death?  

As a Christian, I’ve always believed that Jesus came to teach us how to live.  How to live with each other.  He was always talking about loving one another, about forgiveness, about kindness, about peace.  

I think about Peter cutting off the soldier’s ear, when they came to arrest Jesus, and what Jesus must have thought and felt at that moment seeing it happen.

Shock? Horror? Sadness? Regret? 

After all this time of teaching…  especially since Peter was a disciple, one of the original followers, who spent so much time at Jesus’ feet learning from him… and still Peter chose violence over peace, over love, over forgiveness, he still didn’t get it… 

Don’t get me wrong, I understand where Peter was coming from here!  I think I would protect my people at any cost!  But if this is what Jesus was trying to teach, I think it might have been hard to witness that one of his closest followers wasn’t living in peace.  

What would he think of me? Of my last unpublished post, written in anger, with judgement?  I didn’t mean for it to be but still, it was.  I am only human after all but as a human, as part of this race of humans, shouldn’t I want to help rather than hurt?  

So, again, what if our purpose is more about creating a heaven, a haven, a utopia, right here, right now?  What if it is less about which religion we follow and more about their lessons of love, compassion, kindness, forgiveness, peace, and so on.  

What if our purpose is to just care for one another, love one another, help one another and make the world a place of peace for every living thing?  

We still have our beliefs, our religions but we learn to love every little thing and live peacefully together?

Because it’s the human/right/kind/loving/compassionate thing to do…

Until next time ♥️ …