“It’s hard to imagine how a religion steeped in so much pain and sacrifice turned into a promise of earthly euphoria.” -Donald Miller (a million miles in a thousand years)
Ive been thinking about this a lot lately. Growing up in the Bible Belt in Nashville I always heard that if you love Jesus everything will be alright and your life will be great. And maybe I just heard what I wanted to hear but believing in Jesus does not mean life will be easy and great. Paul is an easy example of that. Paul lived for Jesus yet was steal abused, ridiculed, and thrown in jail. But he stood firm in what he believed. He never wavered and he still found joy in his pain because he knew the character of our Father in heaven. I think it is incredibly important to know who Jesus is and to know His character and to know what scripture says about Him. Because if we don’t as soon as things start to go wrong and the ground we are standing on begins to shake we won’t stand firm if we don’t know who Jesus is or who we are in Him. I have lived as an example of that. I grew up going to church and hearing about Jesus but never truly knowing His character so when my dad got deported everything I knew about God seemed like a lie because I didn’t have a well rounded understanding of Jesus. I didn’t truly know what His character is which meant when the ground started to shake I began to crumble instead of standing firm and I believe this happens a ton because we don’t know His character.
It is beautiful to come in contact with people who love Jesus in the midst of chaos. Here in South Africa we have met people who are very poor and live in slums and love Jesus with everything they have. They find joy and comfort in His character and know even if it seems little, He is providing for their materialistic needs and providing so much for their spiritual needs. They stand firm in their belief that Jesus is their savior, healer, provider. They know He is kind, gentle, good, just, has righteous anger, seeks us out, desires our hearts, wants us to grow. He loves us exactly where we are even when it isn’t in a good place. He wants us to be full of His Spirit and feel the truths of Jesus in us.
I encourage all of you to read your bible, spend time outside, whatever you choose to do. Just do what you need to do to start to understand God, start to understand His character and what He wants for your life. Just know when we understand who Christ is, we realize he is always with us and even when things go wrong we have the best Father to go to and lean on.
