All cooks are hypocrites!
I have heard it time and time again that many people do not like Christians because they are all hypocrites. Christians say one thing (love all people) but then do another (picket funerals). Christians say they forgive people but then they go ahead and hold grudges forever. So many people have decided that they give up being Christian because of this hypocritical behavior that is observed in a select few.
Whelp if that is the case then you might just want to give up cooking.
This little gem of a business will offer you dirty dishes alongside the food you ordered for authenticity sake.
That is right. For those of us who want the joy of cooking without actually cooking but still ensuring others believe you cook - you too can have dirty dishes delivered to your home to give the impression that you slaved over the meal.
The thing is, no one is going to look at this and say, "well, I know that some people will say they cook but actually don't therefor I will give up cooking because all cooks are hypocrites." This is silly.
Christians are not hypocritical - human beings are hypocritical. It just turns out that all Christians are human.
Whelp if that is the case then you might just want to give up cooking.
This little gem of a business will offer you dirty dishes alongside the food you ordered for authenticity sake.
That is right. For those of us who want the joy of cooking without actually cooking but still ensuring others believe you cook - you too can have dirty dishes delivered to your home to give the impression that you slaved over the meal.
The thing is, no one is going to look at this and say, "well, I know that some people will say they cook but actually don't therefor I will give up cooking because all cooks are hypocrites." This is silly.
Christians are not hypocritical - human beings are hypocritical. It just turns out that all Christians are human.
I love change! (As long as it is not happening to me.)
It is one of those things that as life goes on change happens. People get married, jobs change, people get older, graduations, births, anniversaries, going back to school; change happens because that is life. An odd thing about change is how much we all live with it everyday but many people are insistent that they do not like change. This just is a crazy thought. People like change otherwise there would be no growth in life.
There is that story that is told every year in the UMC about this time. There was a minister who asked a congregation who was in numeric decline, "how may of you love your grandchildren?" Every hand went up. "How many of you would give your money to ensure your grandchildren did could have what they needed." Again, hands raised. "How many of you would sacrifice everything you had for the sake of your children's life?" Hands up. Finally the minister asked, "How many of you would be willing to have different music in worship to ensure your grandchildren felt free to worship here on a Sunday morning?"
One hand went up...
So let us be honest with ourselves, we all love change, as long as it is happening to someone else.
This stands in direct conflict with the Gospel which says we are to die to ourselves, we are to be transformed and resurrected, we are to change so that it is not our will but God's will that be done on earth as it is in heaven. Again, Christianity is not about beliefs it is about living a way that being in this world that builds trust and that can only happen if we ourselves are willing to change.
One hand went up...
So let us be honest with ourselves, we all love change, as long as it is happening to someone else.
This stands in direct conflict with the Gospel which says we are to die to ourselves, we are to be transformed and resurrected, we are to change so that it is not our will but God's will that be done on earth as it is in heaven. Again, Christianity is not about beliefs it is about living a way that being in this world that builds trust and that can only happen if we ourselves are willing to change.
Proving God exists
For a number of conversations that I have happen to find myself in with others, I listen to the agnostic and the atheist express why they do not believe there is a God. I really have no reason to try to convince the otherwise because I know it is not really the heart of the matter.
Rather as I listen to them talk we begin to build a relationship. These folk have someone who is a Christian who is really trying to listen to them and understand where they are coming from. I am not alone in my efforts, may Christians around the world attempt to listen with the heart of Christ to those who do not affirm the reality of a God. I pray that we would all work to become better listeners to one another.
Over the course of the conversation, it became clear that a couple of my new friends were trapped in thinking that God is something or somewhere else. That is to say they are convinced that to believe in God means to affirm the reality that there is another separate "thing" out there somewhere that is totally other than their lived experienced.
Too often my Christian friends try to convince others of this sort of understanding of God. And we all can guess as to how many times it has "worked" to convince people. So instead of trying to convince others there is a God through debate or arguments or logic or theology, might I suggest an alternative.
I have a friend, Sarah, who is blind. Sarah was not born blind but became blind due to an issue with her eyes. As she learned to work with her blindness she told me that for her there is no way to tell if a person is standing in front of her unless that person responds.
Might I submit that there there is no way to tell God exists without a response. If you affirm the reality of God, then we must be the response. God is calling the world to be peaceful and just and without a response then it is impossible to "confirm" that there is ever a call to begin with. If we hope to help this world move toward that "peaceable kingdom" then we must first be the ones who are responding to the call of God.
When we respond then others will see there is something more in our lives that is moving us forward. Without a response, it is difficult to "prove" God exists.
Rather as I listen to them talk we begin to build a relationship. These folk have someone who is a Christian who is really trying to listen to them and understand where they are coming from. I am not alone in my efforts, may Christians around the world attempt to listen with the heart of Christ to those who do not affirm the reality of a God. I pray that we would all work to become better listeners to one another.
Too often my Christian friends try to convince others of this sort of understanding of God. And we all can guess as to how many times it has "worked" to convince people. So instead of trying to convince others there is a God through debate or arguments or logic or theology, might I suggest an alternative.
I have a friend, Sarah, who is blind. Sarah was not born blind but became blind due to an issue with her eyes. As she learned to work with her blindness she told me that for her there is no way to tell if a person is standing in front of her unless that person responds.
Might I submit that there there is no way to tell God exists without a response. If you affirm the reality of God, then we must be the response. God is calling the world to be peaceful and just and without a response then it is impossible to "confirm" that there is ever a call to begin with. If we hope to help this world move toward that "peaceable kingdom" then we must first be the ones who are responding to the call of God.
When we respond then others will see there is something more in our lives that is moving us forward. Without a response, it is difficult to "prove" God exists.
Be the change by Jason Valendy is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.