I don't like angry people.
They make me nervous and anxious and worried. Those people who are angry all the time. The ones that want to start a fight over every little thing. The ones who feel the need to defend themselves to the death.
Because I spend so much time on the internet, I find that I come in contact with a lot of these kinds of people.
Angry
Defensive
Argumentative
Read: annoying.
At my church we have a principle that states "we are known for what we're for (not what we're against)," and this is our way of saying, "Hey. We're not going to fight with you about your issues. We are not going to debate about your views on abortion, gay marriage, the death penalty, etc. We will not fight with you." We want it to be known that we are FOR spreading the Gospel. We are FOR spreading the love of Christ. We are FOR the love of God.
I love this principle.
Oswald Chambers takes it a step further in My Utmost for His Highest.
"Our Lord never proclaimed a cause; He proclaimed personal devotion to Himself. To be a disciple is to be a devoted love-slave of the Lord Jesus. Many of us who call ourselves Christians are not devoted to Jesus Christ...Jesus Christ was always consistent to God, and the Christian must be consistent to the life of the Son of God in Him, not consistent to hard and fast creeds."
This really struck me. What kind of causes or creeds am I fighting for? What am I fighting against that is distracting me from my devotion to God? Am I being inconsistent in my relationship with God because I'm so concerned with who I might offend? Is my ultimate priority my devotion to God?
It makes me feel that I'm not wrong in feeling anxious and nervous around confrontation, especially when it involves Christians. I don't believe we are meant to fight with each other over the issues we feel strongly about. I don't think we are meant to get sidetracked from our devotion to God because we want to be right.
It was a good eye-opener. A good reminder that my devotion should not be to one cause or one fight. My devotion is to Christ alone.
“If anyone comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters—yes, even their own life—such a person cannot be my disciple." -luke 14:26
"I am saying this for your own good, not to restrict you, but that you may live in a right way in undivided devotion to the Lord." -1 corinthians 7:35
(see? I got this blog post! :)
ReplyDeleteI've got to say I love this. This is something that has been changing in me during the last 3 months. It's caused a crisis of faith in a way... I used to be that angry, confrontational Christian. I would fight with you tooth and nail over the stupidest things, just to prove a point, just to feel "right". But now? The fight has gone out of me. I've found that I no longer want to associate myself with the "evangelical" crowd because of how argumentative they tend to be. I want nothing to do with "theology" discussions, because they usually cause dissension. I want to put some distance between myself and who I used to be. At least for a while.
That's isn't saying though that I don't still believe the word of God when it comes to some of these "touchy" issues. It just means that I don't believe that's what's important, and I refuse to engage on "issues". Especially without addressing someones' personal salvation first. Jesus never argued with anyone over their sin. I won't either.