I don’t really like Church

I don’t really like church. 

Church has let God down, painted God in a bad light.  

The saddest part for me is the realisation that the message the church is giving just isn’t quite that which Jesus gave. The church is constantly trying to repackage it’s message so that people will come to faith but really we face ourselves not with a packaging problem, but a product problem.  

The church needs to re-evaluate its message. 

I’ve talked to too many ‘free-thinking’ people who didn’t find a home in pews and listening to sermons so assumed that God wasn’t real.

They didn’t fit in at church so they assumed God didn’t fit in with their life.  

I’ve had some comments from people who find the church corrupt, judgemental, arrogant, twisted, hypocritical, and illogical and to be honest I have to agree with them. But this again is not the message of Jesus. 

Too many people don’t get on with the church so think they won’t get on with God. 

Too many people don’t like the way the church thinks so assume there is no other way to think about God. 

I’d like to challenge these points of view… 

Truly Human?

I been thinking about this for a little while now, and I know I’m going to muddle everything up, but here goes… 

What is it to be ‘truly’ human?            

I guess humans have the potential to be so many things but the answer to this question won’t provide us with a pro-former of how to be human, we will remain different and unique, each with our own personality, quirks and traits. This is positive, a good thing, something to be cherished, something, which makes us human. But at the same times we can be things, or have aspects of us which aren’t ‘truly’ human, I know my life is full of them – you’re going to have to bear with the word truly, don’t read into it to much.             

Basically I’ve come to the conclusion that to be truly human is to be full of joy, peace, compassion, justice, mercy and love – not in a happy-clappy, false or tree hugging way, but in a real, down to earth way.  

Love for life. Love for song, dance and tune. Love for sport, skill and entertainment. Love for nature, animals and the environment. Love for food, drink and conversation. Love for families, neighbours and children. Love for yourself, your friends and your God. Love for life! And not love as in our childish branded around ‘I love you’ and ‘I love chocolate cake’ type of love, but a deep down, centred love, which in a stupid way can’t be explained. A love, which is hard to grasp, sacrificial, and a narrow road to follow.  

I’m never going to achieve that, not on my own anyway, it’s very idealistic. It’s going to take something big to get rid of all my anger, hate, injustice, heartlessness, idleness and my insensitivity. But this is what I think it means to be truly human. 

If this is true and I strived daily to be like this I’m sure the world would be a better place, but I don’t and I think its partly because we have lost the meaning of what it is to be ‘truly’ human. 

In society we acknowledge, rightly, that no one is perfect, but this soon equates to there is little or no point in striving to be better, or as long as I’m better than Mr next door then I’m ok.  In our language we also have this whole ‘it’s human nature’ thing going on. ‘It’s human nature to get angry, to hate others, etc’. 

Although in a way it is ‘human nature’ to be imperfect, this language is not helpful as it leaves us with the impression that to be truly human is to be flawed, to be full of things we don’t like in ourselves or others things, like greed and idleness and injustice. As if this is where we are and there is nothing we can do about it, as if we are stuck in a loop, and to be honest I’m not sure I’d like to be human if this is what it means to be truly human.   

But this isn’t the point. 

To be human is to have the choice, the free will if you like, to choose to live a life of love, of life to the full or to choose a life of something else.

To choose to be fully human or not.

To make the most of life or waste it.  

To love life or not.