BE THE WALKING GOSPEL

Photo by: Jelly Ang (http://weheartit.com/entry/18223668)

“YOU ARE THE ONLY BIBLE SOME UNBELIEVERS WILL EVER READ.”

-John MacArthur, 

There was a point in my life after my teenage years where I thought I’ve had enough of all the hard night to night socials with my friends and thought that it was about time to take a TURN AROUND and change life style. It was when I thought that being mature had something to do with hanging out with professionals, people with higher views, people who dealt with life more seriously—don’t get me wrong, it’s okay! Just that my own perception took me to position that most people fall into and later on realize some essential things in life.

Backstory: that was the time I also decided to join a Christian community. I thought, “If I would be attending regular prayer meetings, be a servant, too, I have to veer away from the secular world and build a new life with new people, with clean sheets, avoid being seen in the places I used to be in. Stop the partying, stop going with my friends to drinking sessions because people might think of me as a hypocrite attending prayer meetings, being active in the church but at the same time I go drinking, I go to clubs with friends.” Because imagine, my group of friends would either be all girls in skimpy shorts, party dresses, with smoky eye-shadows, in bars, play beer pong, dance away like there’s no tomorrow. So I decided to slow down from seeing my friends. All I did was go to school-church-home.

 Long story short, in a few months of attendance to the weekly prayer meetings and listening to the discussions by pastoral elders, yes, I felt happy & there was peace in my heart, though, I couldn’t help but admit that I was missing my friends. I also felt the gap between us widening. I wasn’t able to help it and bashfully asked our head about it after a service a service night. He was by the door thanking the attendees who came, so I tried to approach him.

Me: Tito, I have a question.

Our pastoral head turns to see me, smiles and takes me to sit with him and says, “Unsa man? (What is it?)”

Me: You know the idea that I come in and out of this hall, happily serving all the people who come, serving the community, learning a lot from you guys about God and Jesus, people see me in here worshipping, raising my hands. But you see..my friends, they are the typical teenagers who often go to night outs. And I…

With his consistent smile he asks me, “Why? What do you when you go out?”

Me: We party.

Tito Buddy: And then when you party?

Me: Wala lang we dance together, we talk, we share a good drink & laughs. It’s just that, you know, people will see me there and think that I have been coming to church but then I am a party girl.

He chuckles and then faces directly to me, smiled and gently said, “You don’t have to listen to what other people say, as long as you know you are not doing anything wrong, it okay.”

It shocked me to hear it straight from the pastoral head. It’s as if I am hearing him say, “Go! Party! Drink and Have fun with your friends!”  I scratched my head and gulped at mixed emotions of being amazed, and trying to digest the idea that it was okay. I am not saying all but there are actually some out there who would probably tell me to deal with it and just stop because that’s the way it is.

                One guilt feeling haunted me: The feeling of having TURN my back to the friends who I spent most of my life with. Friends whom I was with in ups and downs, friends who had my back when I didn’t have the strength to stand up and personally speaking, my friends who held my chin up, taught me to be proud of whoever I was and get over with all the insecurities in my life. They were the ones who saw flaws in me, but still thought I was wonderful being, and sometimes those are things that even Christian forget to do because we become so overwhelmed in trying to perfect ourselves.

                It made me remember a hard-earned lesson that, especially, as Christians, we don’t have to hate so much. Instead, we have to love. If we come to think of it, we are all but sinners, we have flaws and own tastes of bitterness and claims of selfishness, we have our errors and with all these things that consume us negatively and there is a way to overcome it and the only way is through love.

Nothing is as worse as a hypocrite who goes to church but does not know how to give love to others, especially to those who need it. There is a whole lot of goodness in the world that only love can cultivate and I believe that it is worth fighting for.

As Christians, we should remember that in the same manner, Jesus made friends with sinners,instead of pushing them away, we should bring them in. Go to the world and bless!