Have you ever learned something you wished you could unlearn? Right about now I need a mental shower. Please bear with me as I kind of setup the situation:
I’m a devout Christian. I was raised in a home with a Pentecostal mother and a father who had managed to loose his faith after his brother was shot and killed. It made for an interesting environment but once I was old enough and I passed my second-long rebellious stage, I made my own decision: I could live without religion but not without my relationship with God.
Christians are often accused of being intolerant or narrow-minded but I’ve come across my own share of narrow-mindedness and a good deal of stereotyping. “Why do Christians hate gays?” Really? Every single one? “Why are Christians such hypocrites?” All of us? Collectively?
Well, anyways, the point is that I’ve heard these statements and defended them (“Nuh-uh!) (Okay maybe not like that but at least like, “Not ALL of us…). Please understand that I still stick by this. I think that Christians are just like any other group of people; some good, some bad, some who mess up. There is a quote by Brennan Manning I believe that says, “The greatest single cause of atheism in the world today is Christians, who acknowledge Jesus with their lips, then walk out the door, and deny Him by their lifestyle. That is what an unbelieving world simply finds unbelievable.”
Okay, so all of that was to tell you that I’ve never had the above ring so true or hit so close to home. A while back my cousin suddenly up and moved to New Jersey with her two kids, whom I love and adore and helped raise. It was horrible to be away from them and my cousin who I grew up with. To top it off, practically around the same time, my family’s best friends also moved a couple hours away to Naples.
It was a hard adjustment, missing these two families who were such an important part of my life. I was a little mad honestly, even if that’s selfish. I felt like they just left with little to no explanation and since then there’s been little to no communication.
So, today, after months apart, I finally learned what the deal was. My cousin was having an affair with our good friend and after they were discovered they both (basically) ran away. Whatever happened to being faithful and honest?
I can’t stress how shocking this is to me. These are two people who taught and counseled me at points, encouraging me to follow God. The shock of the news plus my complete anger over the hypocrisy of it all… If you know you are doing something wrong, shut up and don’t try and tell other people how to live their lives.
Ack. I see how stories like these would sour people against Christians but more than anything it makes me thankful for my own relationship with Jesus. You can’t trust or put your hope in people because they will just let you down.
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my world was rocked as well!!! HA