Sometimes screw us up.
I'm quiet. I'm nice. I'm very calm. I'm a good girl.
These are the impressions I've made on those around me here at Cal.
Yet those things are not (necessarily) who I am.
Sometimes I wonder why people don't accept me, don't like me, or don't want me in their group. I think to myself, "If they just got to know me, their impression of me will change."
...They just don't understand me, that's all.
But as I think about it more, I don't think there's anything really wrong with me that prevents people from getting to know me here. There's no contagious disease that makes people stay away, no absurd quirks that turn people off. No, that's not it. They stay away because they don't think I'll accept them either.
And I think that says something about what the world thinks of Christians... that because we don't accept their lifestyle, we won't accept them. That we need to stay away from them in order to preserve our holiness, we need to remain in our safety so we'll continue to be set apart.
We do not want to conform to this world but in the process have swung the pendulum too far to the other side that we've suddenly separated us from the world.
This past week I've been challenged to integrate both my "christian" life and my "secular" life together. But it's been so hard. Why?
Because in order for people to listen to you, they need to accept you first.
I'm personally of the opinion that it's more a result of going so far as to label a difference between Christian and Secular "lives." I'm not saying that people who start looking for the exits the moment any particularly religious topic gets brought up in anything other than a secular/analytical/cynical context (e.g. me) aren't partially at fault here, but identifying life in terms of compartments versus a single, cohesive whole isn't likely to help things.
ReplyDeleteThat said, if you're looking for any religious satisfaction/interactions OUTSIDE of a church setting, the typical reaction to such things could cause some issues because there are so many people in the world who'll specifically ignore the "Christian" side (again, e.g. me), which may or may not be acceptable to you.
I don't think I'm looking for a RELIGIOUS interaction outside of a church setting per say. Rather, I want to meet people who have a different view and see things in a different perspective, so that I can ultimately gain a broader understanding of the world and be challenged with my own believes, thoughts, worldview, etc. I think so many times people, religious or not, shy away from those people or things that would challenge them, make them feel uncomfortable, cause them to doubt, etc.
ReplyDeleteAnd I also think Christians come into relationships with the idea that they need to convert this person, that they can't have meaningful friendships with people who don't share the same views.
By separating Christian "life" and Secular "life," I was in truth pointing out my exact problem: that I AM drawing a distinction, I am separating the two, I am leading two different lives. And I am struggling to bring them both together. But maybe that's because I simply can't, and it's hard for me to come to terms with that idea.
It's not that I'm desiring interaction for the purposes of conversion; it was more of an appeal to CHRISTIANS not to be afraid of immersing themselves in the world, to have relationships outside the Christian bubble with people who don't share the same views as them.
I don't know if any of this made sense to you (this was probably more for me), but I do appreciate your insight...
sorry...that was too long.
ReplyDelete