I'm not Religious

“Life is a journey, not so much to a destination, but a transformation. Looking back doesn't it sometimes feel like our richest times come right in the midst of our hardest? But God made us to life in community, to laugh and cry. To hurt and to celebrate with each other, no matter what we’re going through. And transformation is tough, and we don’t always end up where we think we will. But we have to remember, that even when we struggle to believe in Him, He always believes in us. He fills our lives with purpose and passion, if we just let Him. And the best part of the journey is that the God of the universe sometimes allows us to play a part in changing the world. Isn't that a trip?”—To Save a Life

This is the quote that is used at the end of the movie To Save a Life, in the last week I have watched this movie four times. It never gets old and every time God opens my eyes a little bit more to what it means to truly love others the way that Jesus loves us. In the last month God has taught me a lot about who he is really is. Another one of my favorite quotes in this movie is when the youth pastor goes up to talk to the main character Jake in the movie, Jake says “ Well that’s cool but I’m not really religious,” The youth pastor replies “ That’s okay, I’m not either.” I love this line so much. This is actually what God has been teaching me, it’s not a religion it’s a lifestyle. I dated a guy for a year and he is Mormon, towards the end of our relationship he really made me question what I believe. He trapped me in questions I didn’t know how to answer. I felt like wow I really don’t know how to defend my faith. This feeling ate at me, I wanted so bad to understand. I wanted to get to know everything so I can never feel like that again. In the end, God told me He had a bigger and different plan for me. I followed him and let go of a guy I really loved and care about so much. Since then I have had this fire in me to learn more about different religions compared to my own. After my research, I found out that religion just makes me really mad. It is so crazy how there can be one truth and then all it takes is one human to say that they believe this and then a whole religion is started. Just because you believe it doesn’t mean it is true. I just can’t wrap my head around how someone can look at the bible basically look at God and say this isn’t enough. I know now that God is more than enough for me. It breaks my heart that people think that going door to door to pass out books and trying to save people will get them to Heaven. It breaks my heart that people think good deeds will guarantee you a spot in Heaven. Yes, good deeds are important but good deeds flow from a relationship. A relationship with Jesus Christ, the King who left his throne on high to die for your sin, is the only way to get to Heaven. I have realized you can’t put God in a box and say “well this is how God does things.” He is God; he can do whatever He wants. He could have let us die and have nothing to live for but instead He gave us something to live for. Religion is just a label, a label that holds you back. You know why Christians are so stereotyped, it’s because people don’t live like true Christian. It doesn’t matter if you have the biggest church around and so many people attend. It doesn’t matter if you have a band or an organ. If going to church doesn’t change how you live your life, then why go.  So you can sit on a church pew and gets your one a week fill of God. NO! It is so much more than that. Christianity is a lifestyle. I am reading this book right now called The Irresistible Revelation by Shane Claiborne. In one of the chapters he talks about how in college he got really involved in going downtown and loving on the homeless people. He talks about how he really experienced a true church community. It was an abandon catholic church that the homeless were living in. In that church they had a sermon taught every Sunday, as a group of people seeking God they sang worship song, and they used whatever food they had as communion. It doesn’t matter where you are, God is everywhere. This is such an amazing picture of His church.

Let your religion be less of a theory and more of a love affair. ~G.K. Chesterton ♥

This is such a great quote. God has taught me all about love, His love. I know that people won’t know who God is if I don’t love like God does. You can shove religion at people and get really defensive but they will only know we are different by our love. The bible is just a tool that God uses different for everyone which is so cool. Every day God teaches me something different about who He is and every day I learn more about His unconditional love.