When tolerance isn't enough

Hello and welcome to your weekly blog post!

I pray you all have had a fun and restful 4th of July weekend. This week I thought we would talk about something that is a huge topic of conversation in today's world: TOLERANCE. Recently, I had quite a spirited discussion with an acquaintance regarding the topic of homosexuality and whether or not you could be gay and Christian among other things. Long story short, we both stood firmly on our respective "sides". I was discussing the conversation with my parents this morning and they brought something very important to my attention: I do NOT get to determine who is a Christian and who is not. Now hold on one second because I don't want you to think that I'm turning my nose up at anyone. However, it was brought to my attention that sometimes, when i'm trying to passionately talk about my faith, it can come across preachy, which is the last thing I want. I never want anyone to think that I am intolerant or exclusive to ANYONE. I never want to look like i'm trying to judge anyone. Because that's not my job. That's not our job as Christians. Our job is to spread the Gospel and be vessels for Christ's love and hope here on earth. When I went back in my mind and went over what I said, I realized it came off snooty and that was never my intention. See, I got so caught up in trying to show someone else my point of view that I never really stopped to consider why they had their viewpoint; why they believe what they do. With my blinders on, I charged ahead, convinced that I was right. But it's not about that is it? Because in the end, it only matters that we have accepted Jesus as our Lord and Savior and we do our best to serve Him. So, is someone who is living a homosexual lifestyle truly a Christian? That's not my place to decide or even know. I may never know. But that's ok. Now, the reason I entitled this blog "When tolerance is not enough" is because of this: Tolerance by definition is "a fair, objective, and permissive attitude toward those whose opinions, beliefs, practices, racial or ethnic origins, etc., differ from one's own". Now, i'm all for being fair but life isn't always fair is it? Instead of being objective and hands-off, let's dig deep within our hearts and love those around us, like Jesus did, regardless of their background. I feel like too often, we as Christians are only tolerant of others different than us; we look at them and say, "do what you want but I don't want anything to do with you" or "that's an uncomfortable topic so let's just switch it ok?" But the Christian life is not meant to be some cushy, feel-good journey for us. Jesus said we would be persecuted because we love Him; He never promised an easy life, only His perfect love. In order to spread His love and word, we HAVE to deal with things that may make us uncomfortable. And you know what? That's ok. It's not always going to be easy; we will face opposition. But, we are called to love everyone; the lost, the saved, those of different skin colors than our own, those of different sexual orientations than our own, republicans, democrats, Muslims, Buddhists...EVERYONE! So, this week, I want to challenge us to show His love; to every single person that comes across our paths, regardless of their reaction. It may be scary, it may be hard, it may be easy, it may be welcomed, but whatever the outcome, let us shine His light; let us not be just tolerant anymore; let us be love.