We're Still Human

If we, especially as women, only listened to our feelings, we would be in and out of relationships, in and out of jobs, and disown our children one day, only to welcome them with reckless abandon the next.  Maybe this does not include ALL women, but most of them I’ve known would tend to agree with my perception.  We women are usually running on emotional roller coasters powered by our female hormones. 

I KNOW that we try very hard to be children of God, led by His grace, and striving to live prayerfully ABOVE the worldly “pull” we deal with every day.  But let’s be honest here and face the facts – we are only human and we have these hormones that wreak havoc on our bodies and our minds. We are not 100% successful all the time in our holy walk.

I would like to think that I spend a lot of time with God, attempt to live completely according to His will, and try my best to turn over every area of my life to Him that is not totally right with Him, yet, I STILL have days that I want to throw in the towel and run away. Life sometimes feels like more than I can handle. 

I too often over-analyze everything that God is doing or not yet doing in my life, causing an inability for me to sit back and just go with the flow of faith.  I’m not good at waiting on God’s timing, and I begin to question Him and myself when more time passes than I would like.  Oh how I hate being human.

So why is it, in spite of this humanness that we all struggle with, we go to church and put on these faces that say “All is well!  I’m so spiritual and always do and say the right things.”  Why are we so afraid of being honest with each other, especially our Christian brothers and sisters?  I suppose the devil has us convinced that we must appear to be spiritually above reproach. Heaven forbid we might seem to be less holy than the person who shares the pew next to us.  We’re so afraid that someone might judge our faith at church, and yet, many of us have no concern for how holy we appear outside of church.

The most common complaint I hear from people who don’t attend church is that people who go to church “are all hypocrites.”  Hmmm, that seems to go right along with what I’m saying.  We profess to be these wonderful Christians, always careful about saying the right words to our Christian friends (some of us are too concerned about impressing others with spiritual knowledge), yet so quick to criticize a neighbor or co-worker, or even a family member, for not doing things the way we think they should be done.

No wonder so many people are turned off by Christians and church.  Shouldn’t church be a hospital for emotional healing?  Shouldn’t we all try to help each other through our difficulties?  We can’t do that if we don’t know why people are struggling.  We need to learn to be real with each other and stop pretending to be these perfect Christians that have no problems. 

Of course, we don’t need a place where all people do is talk about their struggles and dwell on their woes.  That would be unbearable if you ask me.  There's got to be a happy medium.  Sometimes, all we have to do to help a fellow Christian is to say, "How can I pray for you?"  Prayer is mighty, mighty powerful.  But if we don’t know someone needs it, how can we help?  Often times, just asking how you can pray for someone will open a door for them to reveal their struggles that need help in prayer.

*In the previous blog, I discussed "changing your thinking".  That seems to contradict what I'm talking about here, but stay tuned next week as I "compare" the two!