Monday, April 13, 2015

Life of a Christian.

"Hello God? It's me, Maragret" I repeat to myself at the beginning of every prayer. I'm not sure why I have this ritual. All I know is that God doesn't really like it since God knows everyone and loves each and every one of us, I hear him in my mind telling me this. If you're not a Christian and you don't even know what that means or what that would look like, just picture this: You're sitting in class and your teacher asks, "Who was Martin Luther King JR?' and you automatically think "Oh, he was an important leader for the Civil Rights Movement". It's like that but with God in a different but similar way. Moving on...
Life of a Christian is a difficult one. I know of only one Christian in my entire grade. Including me that makes two. As time moves on, more people lose their faith and pursue the temptations that follow them. Life of a Christian is not an easy one but it is worth fighting for.
Most days you see something or someone online or in school who likes to talk up a storm about some issue like Gay rights or racism. I'm sure you can picture that one person who has to defend everything they believe in and everything they believe must be right and that everyone should believe what they believe in. Yeah, we face these people every day and some of these people are us, Christians. Now, I'm sure you might be thinking, "Well everyone has the right to freedom of speech" which you would be correct, good job for listening in class. I'm just saying whenever Christians decide to stand up for what they believe they get shot down. I remember in sixth grade, I was sitting in class and somehow my faith was brought about and people would ask me: "Ari, how do you know God exists". I mean you don't even understand how many times people will ask me this. I don't mind the questions, really I enjoy answering them. It's when they become very cynical, and start to judge; telling me I am wrong for my beliefs, and that I have no proof for my beliefs. God cannot be proven or disproven. That is what faith is all about; believing in something or someone whose existence cannot be proven. I remember another time someone asked me my views on gay marriage. Being a Christian I answered, "Well I believe marriage should be between a man and a woman" and wow, the response I get from that is unbelievable. This subject comes up quite often, and when I'm honest about it all I get is hatred in return. One student I knew told me that I was going to burn in hell, I wasn't human and I was a terrible person. Life of a Christian is all about standing strong in your faith against all people who will try to tear you away from your faith, who make fun of what you believe in, and those who hate you because hate is an easy thing to do.
In fact, I used to hate God. I hated him so much  I would skip church, and I would hang out with people who only wanted to tell me how much they too, hated God. Now I'm sure you might be thinking, " I don't understand Ari, if you hated God so much then why are you a Christian now?" I hated God because I didn't understand things that happened to me as a child. I know many people who are the same; people who came from terrible childhoods that scarred them for life and who blamed God for the things that happened or for answering their prayers with the answer they dreaded. I was one of those kids. I grew up abused, neglected until I was about fourteen. I went through a lot as a kid and I honestly consider myself mentally mature enough to say I'm a young adult and I'm not a child anymore even though some older woman or man will tell me otherwise. I am still angry with the things that happened, although it's not directed at God anymore.(I have this blog to help with this anger) To answer the question, I'm a Christian because I believe in Jesus who came and died a terrible death on the cross for our sins to be forgiven. God is always with you, you just have allow him to come into your heart, or at the very least look around you for the work he is doing in your life.
I remember one time when I was a child, around the age of eight, I was in Florida with my mother and her abusive boyfriend. Lets call him Samuel for now. My mother and Samuel got very drunk which is not surprising since they're both alcoholics. Samuel went upstairs to the room while my mother stayed at the bar with her kids and Samuels daughter. My sister and I decided to go up to the room since there was nothing for us to do, Samuels daughter went with us. An hour or so later, my mother came up as lost and no one could find her. Immediately, I started praying, asking Jesus to find my mother. As soon as I was done with my prayer, in walked my mother drunk as can be. Some might call that a coincidence but, I don't believe in coincidences.
Also on a side note, if you pray a lot and you don't think you get an answer. You do. Its either yes, no and not now. I dread the answer no.
What people don't understand about the life of a Christian is that it's not about rules or regulations. It's not about how you look, dress or who your friends are. It's not about how good your grades are, if you cuss or not, if you're still a virgin either. It's also not about the mistakes you made or the mistakes you will make. Christianity is all about having a deep intimate relationship with the One who can never fail you. This is what confuses people out there about Christians. Yes I understand that people who claim or are Christians can be really fake. Trust me, I know. Some of us Christians are actually confused on what we can and can't do or say. We are told by society to look this way, to act this way, to do this and to do that, then we have God who tells us we are beautiful the way we are and that we are created in Gods image. You can see how this can be confusing.
 But God does not tell us to do anything, He gave us free will to make our own decisions. We are not bound to his commands and we can do whatever anyone else pleases to. We are flawed just as much as everyone else and the sooner everyone realizes that, we can take off our "fake" masks and stop pretending that we are perfectly okay because we have Jesus. We still feel sadness and we still struggle, some more than others. The only difference is that we put our trust in Him, we let him work through our lives to help others, we sacrifice our comfort or our friends and family to stand firm in our faith and spread his name to those who have never heard it.
That's all for now. I'll probably write another piece on Christianity or something similar eventually. If you have any questions or comments just comment below.

~Ari xo

7 comments:

  1. This post is so true in the neglect of ones who need help because they're assumed strong but we can only handle so much. You should watch the documentary "Rich Hill" where the main character states he knows God is out there but is helping others at this time and if he doesn't come to help him, it will break his heart. Deep documentary that you might find comfort in as well.

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    1. It sounds really good. I'll see if I can rent it sometime. Also thank you for your support. It means a lot to me.

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  2. I've been there. Please contact me anytime you need anything - I hope my blog posts dealing with a blacked out horrific past can help you deal with the situation now rather than later. Trust me, dealing with it now sucks so bad

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  3. Props to you for being brave enough to share your faith and what you believe in. Keep being strong and standing on your faith. God rewards the faithful and is faithful even when we are faithless(:

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    1. Thank you so much:) I love getting comments like these.

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  4. I feel the exact same way. The exact same way in some parts. But I'm not Christian

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    1. I'm glad to hear you understand some of the things I'm saying.

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