Loving better

You may recall my brief but raving review of Dan Merchant's Lord Save Us From Your Followers. At the time of the post, I intentionally kept my opinions about the movie vague. I didn't want to taint your view of it before you had a chance to watch it yourself, but I also needed time to figure out exactly what I thought about it. Since some time has passed, here are a few thoughts.

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I liked how the movie didn't feel like one big attack on Christians, but in the end, I still felt convicted. I don't mind that kind of conviction, the kind you aren't guilted or shamed into. I felt convicted because the overwhelming message from the non-Christian population was: I'd like Christians a lot more if they were more loving. Fair enough. (It's also important to note that several non-Christians said that many Christians they knew actually were some of the most loving people they knew.) But overall, if God is love and Christians are to be "little Christs," then non-Christians aren't getting an accurate picture of Jesus from Christians, on the whole.

On the one hand, I whole-heartedly agree. Christians often live hypocritically. We say we love Jesus but we have road rage and high divorce rates and are addicted to alcohol and shopping; we yell at our kids, eat too much, and often don't know when to shut up. We can't handle down time, alone time, unplugged time. We think bad thoughts and sometimes say them out loud. We gossip. We're jealous. We're a pretty sorry bunch. And make no mistake: those things are not okay.

BUT.

That's not all (thank God).

The reason Christians don't always act the way they should is that they're human, and by human I mean sinful. I don't say that as a cop out, because being sinful is not an excuse to sin, but being sinful does mean that we won't be perfect this side of heaven, that we'll mess up (often), that we're in process, that we're growing but haven't arrived. God has changed us, but He's also in the process of changing us. Surely that process of becoming is a human quality that both Christians and non-Christians can identify with, which means we all need to give each other a little more grace in that growth.

That being said, the documentary challenged me not to love perfectly, which is impossible, but to love better. Before you think I've gone all let's-hug-it-out-and-draw-hearts-and-rainbows-in-the-margins, I realize that LOVE is a loaded word. It's not always hugs. It's not always acceptance. It's not always tidy. What does it really look like to love better, then? I plan to write more of what I'm learning about that in some upcoming posts (along with some more lighthearted posts to keep us afloat amid the deep thoughts). Looking forward to processing with you!