My church is doing a series that has been broken up into 4 parts: Indiscriminate Love - Indiscriminate Joy - Indiscriminate Hope - Indiscriminate Grace. So clearly through that, I've thought a lot about the word INDISCRIMINATE. If you look up the meaning of the word, you may be surprised that it means words like "inconsiderate, careless, random". However... it also means words like "nonselective, unrestrained, uncritical". When thinking of myself as a follower of Christ and how I live my day to day life, I think those last few words I mentioned are very important to the definition. I also want to note that the antonym of indiscriminate is: SELECTIVE. I found that to be very interesting and yet powerful.
We live our lives selectively don't we? This isn't necessarily always a bad thing! We are selective where we want to live, how we want to spend our time, what we eat, where we go on vacation, what we say, what we don't say.. ect. Our entire lives are about CHOICES. And YET.... in many ways, as believers, God DOESN'T call us to be selective. Never anywhere in the Bible does it say who we're allowed to not love, accept, or extend grace to. In fact it's the opposite. The love that's explained in the Bible is.. well.. indiscriminate. Radical. Life changing. A love that breaks boundaries and has no boundaries is the love we are ALL called to have. Of course this will never be the way of the entire world. There's too much sin and hate already for this to be global. It can however, start with ME. It can start with YOU. And it sure as heck should start with the ones who claim to love and follow Christ.
If you are reading this and you know me well (which you most likely do) then you know that I believe in God. That doesn't make me perfect, and it doesn't make me "more loving". However, in my heart I KNOW that Christ calls me to love unconditionally. So please know that these things that I'm saying are my OWN constant reminders to live love and accept all with an unrestrained grace. We ALL as humans do this - We point to a religion, race, political party, lifestyle ect.. and get some sort of satisfaction from knowing that we're right or better. Christians though... we totally have a right to say what's right and wrong.. right??? If it says something about it in the Bible, then we are allowed to point the finger and discriminate right??? False. We do not have that right.
Look... I'm not going to go bashing "my own kind" here. Most of the Christians I personally know are very open armed. In fact my church is one of the most inclusive Christian communities I've ever been a part of. However, I do know that isn't how "we" all are. I think as Christians, where we all can constantly get it wrong is that we really do sometimes think it's our job to point the finger at everything that's bad or "sinful". We see something that doesn't align with the Bible or with our personal convictions and so we stop living out 1 John 4:20 - “Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen.” Hate is a strong word, but sometimes I think we don't realize that the way we treat people can speak hatred wether or not we actually have hate in our hearts. When we make someone feel less than because they live their life differently, we are being hateful. Hey Christians - It's possible to have opinions and still remain loving in our approach to all. Side note: I fail at this constantly and am always asking God to give me the ability to see people how he sees people. One thing I've learned through that is that as humans in general (no matter what you believe) we DRAW LINES. When we start living our lives in a way where we draw lines everywhere we stop being the people God intended us to be. This includes drawing lines between us and people who even just think differently than we do. (and yes even in politics lol) It's a people problem honestly - Christians and non Christians. Jesus never drew lines though. He erased them. So as a Christian whose goal is to be like Jesus, I'm realizing that "the Christian life" is way simpler than the Christian community at large sometimes makes it seem. Jesus loved everyone. End of story. Literally everyone. The Bible says Jesus said "take up your cross and follow me". It doesn't say "don't be gay, stop having premarital sex, go to church, don't drink alcohol, read your bible, pray more.... THEN you can follow me". So why then as Christians do we sometimes act like that's true? "Take up your cross" is talking about dying to ourselves by allowing GOD to work in us through what HE did on the cross.
So you might be wondering why the picture at the top of this post is of a rainbow flag. Clearly at this point you realize that my post isn't about the gay community. However, in light of it being pride month I think that's actually a good example of what I've been talking about here.. and I am SO going to go there : ) I am not going to make this into a discussion about what the Bible does or doesn't say about homosexuality. What I am going to mention though is how for years the gay community has felt judged and secluded from Christians and church's, and it's a tragedy. There is a line being drawn among many religious communities between them and the entire LGBT community. It causes hate on both ends. Remember what I said about lines and Jesus? He erases them. It's time WE erase the lines too.. and when someone from that community walks into the doors of our church, we embrace them and treat them like we do everyone else. If the church you are going to won't openly accept a gay person or baptize them even... then you may be following the wrong "Jesus". If you're a Christian reading this and you think I'm walking a fine line here - GOOD. Bring it on. I can't tip toe around subjects like these because it's uncomfortable. Jesus never did that either. It's time we stop pointing the finger AT people, and instead point it UP to Christ.
One of the preaching pastors at our church spoke yesterday about how we are eternal beings. He reminded us all that our life here on earth is so short and insignificant compared to our life in the eternal sense. After thinking more on that topic, as well as thinking about all discussed in this blog, I asked myself the question: How am I going to live my one and only Earthly life? My answer? Indiscriminately.
Is that easy? No. Its my prayer though...
Dear Heavenly Father, I ask that you continue to show me how to love and see people how YOU love and see them. Help me to live my life radically for you. Show me what it means to live indiscriminately.
Amen.
