It Starts With Me

It starts with me. I don’t always represent Jesus well.
It starts with me. Sometimes I unfairly stereotype people based on a few.
While I won’t be perfect, I can represent Jesus better.
While I’ll still unfairly stereotype, I can do a better job of parsing out what’s unfair with what’s true.

            If I can encourage you to do anything, it’s to really stop and think: Am I considering leaving Christianity or this church based on a few bad experiences or is this universally true?

            My friend, pastor and author John Dickerson, recently shared a story with our church. He said he had gone to a certain restaurant and had a really bad experience. While the food was glorious going down, it was not glorious coming back up. He has a hard time going back to that restaurant. However, he still eats food. He hasn’t given up on food completely.

            In the same way, just because you had a bad experience with that person or that particular church, don’t give up yet. Don’t leave faith behind, yet. Don’t give up on the big C Church yet.

             “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.” Matthew 7:3-5.

            It starts with me.