A thought on Cynicism and Christian Institutions
Often in life and more recently in my time bar-tending at the Bistro, the conversations will lead to why the heck a guy like me from Portland is living in Redding, and thent hey find out I got my degree, and what it is, and this eventually leads to some statement about somebody feels a bit burned, and overall cynical of institutions either run by Christians, or made up of Christians, or proclaiming itself to be an ambassador of Christianity. My reply is usually the same, that I am sorry to feel that way, and hope eventually those feelings fade away. But lately I have been thinking about those people, and how actually, I am both not surprised, and even a bit happy that they came away thinking this way.
That being said, this is a great way to find out how you perceive Christianity.
I mean if you think about it, you can do what I did, go to a private Christian institute of higher education, and be immersed in a world of Christians who are all at very different stages in their Christian walk, you can watch the rise and fall of those thought on the outside to be more righteous than others, or observe the dirty underbelly of Christianity not revealed in tracks and glossy brochures of a politically correct, multi-ethnic group of students, smiling and inviting you to join them. This dirty underbelly being comprised of something called.... brace yourself: Humanity. Yes that group of uncouth, degenerate sinners, who have no right to embrace that which is perfect and pure. Yep, that's right humans. You, me, Ugly Betty, all saved by grace, but still all prone to sin, nobody's perfect. What?!? Yup another heresy, we are not perfect.
So I kinda like that people walk away with their beautiful idealistic image of Christians skipping through a field being turned into something not as pretty. Maybe a war-zone, maybe Wall Street, maybe Skid Row. This can allow them to perhaps take a step to seeing Christianity as a bunch of people, who do not deserve to clean up the non-existent snot in heaven, to be viewed as a bunch of people trying so hard, but not always all the time, and not always in perfect fashion to follow Christ. And to realize they too are one of those people.
Thanks for listening again,
Zach