Caution: Christian in Training...

Here is something which may be controversial to many of our

readers. In a recent conversation with a good friend, I was

asked if I was religious. My answer was “No”. My friend then

said, “But you are a Christian” Again I said “No”. Confused,

my friend then asked how I saw myself. I said I have my faith

but to me it is a very personal thing. I do not consider myself

worthy to be a Christian because I fail to meet the standards

of Christianity on a regular basis. I said I am learning to be a

Christian but I am not there yet. I am an apprentice Christian.

In my mind, a Christian is someone who follows the teachings

of Christ, is full of love, forgiveness, humility and who does

not regard himself/ herself in a position above others. Their

life is selfless, full of good deeds and helps those less fortunate.

They also do not judge others.

As a member of the human race, it is incredibly difficult to be

a true Christian, in fact the only person I know that has ever

pulled it off is Jesus himself. Again, in my mind, this is something

that all of us fail to achieve just due to the fact that we

are human. But that’s OK. We know that Jesus gave his life

for us so all sins will be forgiven. What this really means is,

God knows we are not perfect and we need to learn the ways

of Christianity by making mistakes. Like a father loves his

children, he is there to show us the way when we get it

wrong. But as a loving parent, he loves us regardless of what

we do. He stands by us. So, like a child learning to be an

adult, to me, being a Christian is my goal but I am not there

yet. I still need to learn. My life is like an apprenticeship, a

school for Christianship. Learning the ways of our Lord until

the day we stand before him, are judged and are finally qualified

as a true Christian. Our reward is an eternal place in

Heaven. That’s the qualification that I am striving for.

I know this is not how everyone thinks and I know many people

will disagree with me and that’s fine. But it’s a good way

of thinking about what our life is all about. By thinking this

way keeps my life real and doesn’t put me in a place of being

a spiritual know-it-all or a hypocrite. That is a danger I try to

avoid. I also don’t want to be seen as a conditional Christian.

One who preaches the word of God but will fit that word to

suit their life. This is something which is very commonplace

today. Consider the person who has done you wrong in the

past. You forgive them the wrong they have done to you but

do not speak to them anymore or have anything else to do

with them. Is this a Christian thing to do? Absolutely not.

This is the human way of adapting Christianity to our own

purposes. Imagine if God did that. It doesn’t bear thinking

about.

Now, Jesus taught us how we need to be and made it very

clear so the Christian way was, in no way, up for discussion

or debate. It is written very clearly in the bible how we should

be so that there would be no confusion? So why do we

adapt the laws of God to our own laws? Why do we change

the word of God just because we don’t feel comfortable with

it? The answer is simple, none of us are perfect and we are all

in training. We all need to learn. We all get it wrong at times

and we need to learn from those mistakes and be forgiven in

order to gain our qualification. I must point out that this is

just my own thoughts and just how I see things. But I do

hope that there may be something within this reflection which

will help your own personal journey.

Bible Reading for today: 2 Corinthians 13:1-14