authentic.

{Ps....this is me stepping onto my soapbox}

Crazy Love. Francis Chan. 

I'm about to dig in, and the back cover is already enough for me to know how well this guy and I are gonna connect. 

Like Francis, I'm so tired of this typical Christianity norm. You know what I'm talking about. The way our society views religion. What makes it a norm? The fact that we think that going to church is enough? The fact that we have our Bibles sitting on our dressers {dust collected may I add}? The fact that every now and then we'll 'perform a good deed' not because we are trying to genuinely serve but because we want some sick, extrinsic reward? What makes it a norm to give our money, throw it in the plate, but not give our time? Why do we go to church anyway? To give others the pleasure of seeing us there or to really be in community with others before our God? Why and when did this become the norm? To be lukewarm Christians? At what point did Jesus' followers say, "We're just gonna sit back, screw our relationship with him, and just get by"? Cheap grace my friends. 

I think of people in other countries who fight for their lives to have these privileges. Fight to the death because its worth it to them. They can't even have church buildings, places in general where they can meet together to tear down each others walls and build each other up. They can't even carry a Bible. We so take it for granted. I think we feel forced. Forced into tradition. Goofy memorization. Repetitive song lyrics. Pushing the relationship with Jesus to the side. On the back burner. But why? Who says it has to stay this way? 

Because God, yeah he definitely wants it to change. 

I ask all of these crazy questions not because I want to force a relationship with Jesus on anyone but because my heart literally hurts; it aches. I see broken, torn people and the shattered world in which we live. I see this in the church and I see this outside of the church. Jesus is out of reach to them. They find their Father on Sunday. They are orphans the rest of the week. Orphans who think their Father has abandoned them when in fact its the other way around. 

We just aren't soaking up what God has to offer! We aren't owning what he tells us about himself. God sent his Son to die on the cross. Yep. God forgives all of our sins. Yep. God's grace will get us that eternal life. Yep. Really? That's our only response? We take into account what our ears want to hear, what our eyes want to see. We pull God into our picture when we've lost direction, when its convenient for us. 

Here's the thing.  

God's love is authentic. A relationship with him is authentic. Real. Raw. Walls torn down. Open. Honest. True colors. Dependable. Legit. And last but not least....realistic. Not fake, not bogus. Those weird lookin' people who may throw their hands up in the air while singin to Jesus, who may cry when they're praying. Did you ever stop to think that they may be feelin God, feelin his love, feelin his grace, and experiencing a desire to just be closer?

All I know is this...If I could only meet my Jesus on Sundays, I'd feel like a dang orphan too.