Recently, one of my friends was given the following request: stay away from our church until he could be/act “more Christian”. Gads, such statements frustrate me. Really, what is that supposed to mean? I expect this is about being more cheerful, dopey happy, carefree nonsense. Bleh! People of faith wrestle with pain, sadness, depression, anger and anguish. God meets us where we are, not in this fantasy la-la land.
Yeah, we’re supposed to be battering the world with our hammers of righteousness, rubbing those wretched sinners noses in how revolting we sanctimonious babblers find them. Bah, I say; refusing that path as empty and vacuous, ultimately destructive. I stand with the broken, the sinner, the struggling, as best as I’m able, for that’s me, too.