No Rest For The Weary

Well, I don't know about anyone else but I am just exhausted! I am so tired of hearing of people being drawn away from God by religious people! If you are genuinely trying to follow Christ's example, I applaud you. I just don't understand why people allow bad teaching or a legalistic upbringing to turn them hardcore against "religion".  I put that word in quotes because it means different things to different people and it gets mixed up a lot when people use it in place of relationship. To me, religion is what I grew up learning - the dos and don'ts, the rules. Religion, in my view, is usually legalistic and oppressive. I don't remember anyone ever telling me when I was young that to be a Christian was to love and serve others. I learned that it meant instead to do THESE things and don't do THOSE things and to never, never talk (or even THINK) about any of THAT.  Since, I have come to prefer relationship over religion.  It saddens me that so many kids that grew up the way I did probably quit going to church as soon as they turned 18 (as I did) and never returned.  Some not really knowing if they believe in God at all anymore, or even caring.  I am tired of hearing about people who have been rejected and even ostercized by others who call themselves Christians. I am tired of people brandishing that title as a license to judge others. I am tired of being lumped in with a group that professes to know God and follow Christ but who's actions and even words habitually and willfully exemplify the exact opposite of what Christ modeled. We are all human. We mess up. We cannot be like Christ. I am not saying that we should expect perfection from ourselves and others, but we can strive to show the kind of unconditional love that He displayed. He loved the unloveable. He accepted the unacceptable. And He forgave the unforgivable. I read an article this week about a woman who lived in such an extreme state of "biblicalness" that the scripture she was following was twisted and out of context to the point of allowing herself to be manipulated and steamrolled as she had come to believe that was what it meant to be a submissive wife. She regularly hesitated to voice her opinion or disagree with anything her husband said for fear of sinning against him and against God. Who teaches this stuff!? Now she blames the church for the abuse she endured and the oppression she and her children lived under. To her, being the "good Christian wife" equates to near-slavery. Now she spreads a message of "Woman, be loosed", encouraging women to break away from the oppression of Christianity and the biblical family lifestyle. I don't understand why people like this fail to see that, although they may have been misinformed or even manipulated, it's people that have let them down. People that have purposefully or ignorantly misused the scripture and led them astray. It was not Christ who did that. It was fallable humans that failed them. Not God. Christian, if you are going to claim the title, you need to be willing to respect it and wear it well. Represent. Don't be a part of the reason people won't give God a chance.