Be Still

As summer draws to a close we look back with gratitude; for campers returning from rainbow trail with a renewed energy towards grace. For all those volunteers and donations for what was another amazing year at Day Camp, showing the love of Christ to the least of these. Another backpacking trip where there was hail, campfires, laughter, and just a touch of hairy potter. Finally a summer that was an amazing example of the power my congregation has to be a beacon in our community.

As I look towards fall I am both excited and exhausted. Excited for the conversations, the youth groups, the events, and just the time I get to spend doing ministry in this amazing church. Yet I am exhausted from a slowing pace after a very full summer. So the question is how to I recenter on ministry when I am still just trying to catch my breath?

Psalm 46:10

Be Still and know that I am God

Be Still and Know that I am

Be Still and Know

Be Still

I moments that we look to the future, the horizon, even the next task at work or school we have next on our plate. So this fall I am challenging myself and the rest of our congregation to look at our feet for just a moment. To take a deep breath and be ok with the idea that God’s call for us in some of these moments is to Be STILL. Not run head first into the next adventure but to take a grateful heart to a place of stillness and reflection.

Taking an evening with the family to schedule a dinner where there isn’t a phone, tv, radio, or distraction and laugh together, talk together, and just be together. These moments will help us understand God’s call for us to be still.

As most of you know I am a huge nerd and my nerdiness has a strong foundation of T.V. shows, cartoons, music, and yes movies. The most influential of all being Star Wars. For as long as I can remember I wanted to be a Jedi, the greatest of which was Yoda. When he first meets luke, all Luke wants is to go “meet master Yoda now”. Yoda has to tell Luke 3 times he needs patients. It was at this moment that Yoda say’s “I cannot teach him he has no patients”.  He pokes Luke in the chest and says “All his life has he looked away... to the future, to the horizon. Never his mind on where he was... what he was doing. Adventure HUH! Excitement HUH! A Jedi craves not these things”

So my challenge as we creep towards Halloween is that we as a congregation can look at our feet. Put our minds on where we are and what we are doing. We plan to our next great adventure, we prepare for the excitement of advent. Let us take this time to breath, talk of this moment, and

Be Still

The Well That Can't Run Dry

Recently we have been talking so much about stewardship and our call to serve both the church and our greater community. I found myself wrestling with the idea of “grace freely given” because of the conversations. The idea, that God’s love and Grace flows from an endless well, that we will never be able to give enough back to or be grateful enough for this gift. Yet God does call us to lives of action, not a demand, but a call. When we answer this call it is usually started with excitement at the possibilities of what we can do for God. Yet about half way through our hard work and grit we find ourselves finding things to complain about. If it is a mission trip, we grumble about the heat or dispersion of the work load. If it is a fund raiser we find that the clean up and energy expelled yielded less than we anticipated in giving. If it is encouraging our congregation to find how our new congregation worships, we grumble about how we miss what the old congregation used to do.

I find myself wrestling with the church we are, the church we want to be, and the church God is actually calling us to. I don’t think any of these 3 places are the same place. Not by active struggle, nor the desire to make Holy Spirit into something it’s not. No, the struggle I see is that we are stuck in the middle of our mission. We have fought as a congregation to become better than we were and now that we have been on this journey for a while, the grumbling might start as we push to go further.

So why would this push make me think about “grace freely given” and the “well that does not run dry”? Simple, what happens when the work that has been put forth puts us into a place where we finally feel like we don’t need to thirst for a little while? When we don’t think we need the well? Right now we are comfortable with worship, we are safe in giving, we have enough service to put a check in the box of work. If we push for more that means we will become thirsty once again, and isn’t it nice not to thirst, even for a moment.

A pause is nice, refreshing, and needed but it is not what we as the body of Christ are called to be in the world. Romans reminded me what we are:

12: 1 Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. 2 Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.

9 Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good.

 10 Be devoted to one another in love. Honor one another above yourselves. 

11Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord.

12 Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. 

13 Share with the Lord’s people who are in need. Practice hospitality. 

14 Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse. 

15 Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn. 

16 Live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud, but be willing to associate with people of low position. Do not be conceited. 

17 Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everyone. 

18 If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. 

19 Do not take revenge, my dear friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,” says the Lord. 

20 On the contrary: “If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head.” 

21 Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

We are a living sacrifice, not a part time nor convenient sacrifice. Be a living sacrifice! Give when you have little to give, serve when you have been worn weary, and through it all find joy, hope, patients, and faithfulness in prayer. Giving thanks to the one who gives you and this congregation strength to be living gifts to God.

It’s like most of our parents taught us, “If it were easy, everybody would do it”.

But can we? Can you?

My Brother's HOA is Hilarious.

So a little while ago I was at my brother’s beautiful home. We had just set up a new basketball hoop for his kids, so as well-mannered and responsible fathers… is that laughter… I am taking names. We of course had a dunk contest… crushed it. Afterwards we of course had the 3-point competition and this is where our adventure takes, A TURN. I lob a shot towards the hoop it bounced straight up, and with the slowest bounce I have ever seen. The bounce was so slow I literally had time to say, “there is no way that breaks the window, Right?” the ball lightly taps the front window of my brothers how and Shatters it like the dreams of an Iowa girl getting off the bus in Hollywood hoping to be a movie star. SHATTERED. As we stood their wide eyed, and for me at least, embarrassed. We realized well the windows were single pain 30 years old and let in more heat than the Broncos offensive line. So my brother started the process of replacing his front windows. He quickly realized he had to deal with the three scariest letters in home repair. H-O-A. That right, before purchasing his new windows, he had to get the color, shape, size, and company approved by the.. H-O-A. You see the home owners association is an organization meant to keep a neighborhood on the same footing. Keeping yards clean, houses visually appeasing, and the most anal and nitpicky amongst the community busy for 2 Tuesdays every month. Really HOA’s are there to make a community play by the same rules. So that one house doesn’t destroy the esthetic or code the community agrees to.

This has many upsides. Great looking homes, high property values, heck some even have a community pool that is inside your HOA dues. Yet this has some downsides. Like, I don’t know, being threatened with a fine because you haven’t had a chance to paint your chimney the HOA approved color because you work two jobs and are passionate about the work you do at your church. This downside also made it so my brother had to work for almost 6 weeks before getting his Window replaced, and while waiting on the HOA he got contacted… by the HOA… about his broken window. So do you see where some frustrations might start to build.

There is a belief that to live in God’s HOA (Heart owners association) we have to work to follow all those rules. These items that make us proper Christians to live in God’s neighborhood. By keeping our actions consistent. Coming to church Sunday, giving a base tithing, and trying to do a service project once a year. We fulfil our side of the covenant. Sadly, that is the old HOA covenant with God. We have so much to do to live in God’s community. As if we can act close enough to perfect that God will pass by us on his HOA walk though. Our cloths are clean enough, our words are clean enough, our handshake is firm enough. As long as we appear to be right with God, that must be the case. It isn’t, we will never be good enough for God’s HOA. “For No human being will be justified in his sight” Romans3:20. With Jesus the covenant was changed.

Christ’s covenant isn’t that we are to work to live with God, but that Christ wants to live with us. Those whose homes and hearts had been ravaged by wear and tear. Some of us can empathize with this. My home has bushes that are untrimmed, yards covered in leaves, both my living room and family room covered in the toys of a highly active 5 and 3-year-old, even my bedroom has shoes and clothes at the foot of the bed. My heart is the same, overburdened with the stress of work, with the worry that my son is doing well enough in school, the fear I am not supportive enough as a husband. Both my heart and home show that beating of use over time. Christ see’s our wear and tear and says it is not what the house or heart looks like that matters. It is a much simpler question. Is it open? Is your heart open to those who are in the most need? Is your house open to those who knock? Are you willing to show your imperfections not to emphasis your own frailty but to Glorify the strength of God?

For what becomes of Boasting? It is excluded. By what law?  By that of works? NO, but the law of faith. For we Hold that person is justified by faith, apart from works prescribe by the law.

Our New Heart Owners Association Covenant is clear. No matter how Good you make yourself look. No matter how many houses you build, no matter how many services you attend, no matter how many sermons you give. We are all justified by the same thing. A faith in the one who presented you his grace. If you have the cleanest house with the best décor, or you have have a home covered in toys, spaghetti stains and dog hair. Grace has been given to you through Christ jesus our lord. We can not do enough to move into God’s subdivision.  So God sent his son to live with us. To live in our imperfection. To live in our frailty, fear, and selfishness. In Christ Jesus God signed up for our HOA. “The Righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction. For all have sinned and short of the glory of God. They are now justified by his Grace as a Gift. “ Our Homes and our hearts are impossible broken, just as God designed. So that we may not depend on our own works, but only on the grace of God.

In this imperfection God’s HOA calls us to one simple thing. Believe. Believe his love abounds over you. Believe you can be his hands and feet. Believe you can do all things through Christ who strengthens you. Believe the community of believers are imperfect but can do impossible things. Believe in yourself, for you are a creation of God. Just Believe – It’s a covenant we all can sign. This covenant frees us from the burden of unreal expectations. This covenant frees us from self-loathing, fear, and frailty. For in that covenant of belief we are given a gift, for in that Belief in the Son, We will be Free Indeed.  -Amen

How i Met your Baggage

My amazing wife and i are watching one of my favorite shows of all time, How I Met Your Mother.
It is a really fun sitcom that usually has some morality thread through an episode. This last week we got to an episode that made me really disagree with their premise. Ted (the main character) is struggling to find a  woman who doesn't have baggage. Through the episode, he finds he also has a huge chunk of baggage, but lucky he meets a girl who will help him carry it. For a moment he seems happy, until she unloads all her baggage onto him. Now this baggage ranges from living with her brother, too many cat, hates star wars. Then there is his baggage which was being left at the alter.

My problem comes at the idea of having to share each other load of luggage for a relationship to work. The idea that we are forever weighed down by our past like a weight around our necks and if someone is ever planning on loving us they have to help carry the weight. I know i am blessed in a relationship where i feel we don't have much baggage but really the weight of our past isnt what drives my amazing wife and I. I had a hard time connecting to this episode and i think i know why.

WE ALL SUCK! We all have something in our past that has changed us in a negative way (our baggage). The glory i have found is that i have a personal bell hop. I companion who is always ready to take my luggage to my next stop so i can enjoy my life's adventure unencumbered. !Spoiler Alert! it's Jesus. That is the easy short answer and now all your problems are solved, please don't forget to tip your waitress...

If only it was that easy. Our baggage weighs us down going into knew relationships every time we meet someone. Fear about what they will think, intimidation at the thought of their judgment, and even hatred of those who appear to not carry any burden at all. These personal hesitations have NOTHING to do with the other person! They are actually just what we see when we think about ourselves weighed down by our past. Others see you as God sees you, in this moment, imperfect in your perfection.

We must see ourselves as God sees us, and in doing so find peace. In that peace find the true feather weight of our personal baggage, that we are not doomed to be burdened with it because God has called us to focus on his mission for us. That calling in our hearts that makes us whole without the need for adulation That mission is always forward and never back! Eyes focused on the world God asks us to create everyday filled with hope, joy, and love.

Paul tells us his realization in his letter to the Philippians 3:  Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.

Forgetting what is behind and straining towards what is ahead. Have you strained to move on from your past? Have you let go of that luggage and let the Grace of Christ bare the load? When you do you can Press toward the goal God has called you to in Christ.

The only person holding your baggage is YOU. So i pray for you, that you may let go of those things that hold you back from being the brilliant being of light you are. 

So here i stand, on the wrong side of the Cross telling you that you are a Luminous being, not this fleshy crude matter. I ask you to drop those things that hold you back! Your fear, sorrow, and pain is exactly that, Yours. It may have helped shape you, but you can never let it define you! 

 “Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”

Fruit of the Spirit (RTLC 2015)

You are not some special little snowflake. You are not a rose in a field of dandelions. You are not the only one like you in the world. I have heard these things from parents and none of them are true. They aren’t true about you, they aren’t true about me, and they aren’t true about anyone. Except Chris Pratt…. He, He is just great! Now if I were to say anything about individuality and “specialness” it would be this. You are an Aspen Tree. Some are tall, some are short, some are ugly, and some have things carved into them. You are an Aspen Tree, you are different from other aspen trees but only if you look REALLY close. Other wise you are just another tree in the forest.  The reason is because YOU are broken, YOU are imperfect, YOU are damaged goods. You are a MEAT SACK with a stone heart that is crumbling and so is EVERYONE ELSE.

There is good news though we have a specific set of tools to help polish our stone heart.  These Tools are Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Faithfulness, Gentleness, and Self Control. Unfortunately, more bad news, your tools are just terrible. They are weak, rusty, and breaking.  Your love will fail the one whom deserves it because of personal resentment. Your Joy will fail you when faced with true devastation. Your peace will fail when the waves of life’s trepidations hit you. Your patience will crumble under the weight of expectations. Your Kindness will last only as long as your love for the person whom is testing you. Your Goodness will disappear when selfish desire arrives.  Your Faithfulness will only last as long as you need it to, and then it will be as fleeting as a summer breeze. Your Gentleness will only last as long as your self control allows. Long story short, your tools are weak and frail.

Here is the Best news. We have a carpenter who has better tools than we do. 2000 years ago our carpenter waded into the river Jordan.  Had hands placed upon him and was plunged into the waters of the river. When he reappeared above the waters the spirit entered him. (Matthew 3:13-17) That same spirit enters us at our baptism gives us the Fruit of the Spirit. That singular fruit has multiple attributes that give us the ultimate tools we need. We gain the ability to tap directly into the bottomless well that is God’s Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Faithfulness, Gentleness, and Self Control, and in these gifts we will never be left wanting. Christ describes it best in John 14:27

“Peace I leave with you; MY peace if give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.”

It is God’s gift to us in the Holy Spirit that we can tap into. A love that will never fail or falter  and forgives no matter how many times forgiveness is asked. A joy that surpasses all understanding. A peace that will calm the waves in the middle of a storm. A patience that has waited Three days before reveling to the world the Greatest News of all time. The kindness to those who did not ask for it nor did they deserve it, but instead a kindness that is freely given.  A goodness that will be poured out from the heart of the one who was sent for the world’s sake. A faithfulness in the one who formed your heart from clay and with a snap of his fingers sent that heart into a flutter. Finally, a Gentleness that will be lead by the self control of the man who gave his life for yours.

Now I might be on the wrong side of the cross here, but I started this with the idea that you are not special. We are not pretty flowers in a field of dandelions. Instead I insist that we are all Aspen trees. Aspen trees are diverse and bend to their environment, so none of them look alike. Yet they all have roots that are interconnected. They all have scars caused by someone else. They all have leaves that give comfort to those below. Your story may be hard and painful, but you aren’t the only one who has gone through it. Your story may be weird and privileged, but you’re not the only person who feels conflicted. Your story is not a magic little snowflake, and that is NOT A BAD THING. To think that you are the only one who can understand what you are going through is a LIE. A Lie to yourself and a lie to the world. Until you realize that we are all in this together you won’t be able to get past your brokenness. To dive into the Fruit of the Spirit we are gifted with. The best part about aspen trees is that their roots grow together. Until one tree is actually two. Two trees wrap themselves together to make four. Until the whole forest are many trees with one set of roots. We are rooted in Christ, and that means we are all not that special, but we all receive the gifts. Sorry if you thought you were a butterfly in a pod of caterpillars.

Galatians 5:22-23

“But the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patients, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control. Against such things there is no law.” 

The Angry Christian Dilemma

    So I have attempted to write a post when something in the world moved me to post an important opinion. Lately, and by lately I mean the last several months, I have been far too angry at politicians, religious leadership, and in some of the things I hear coming from my own congregation to write a post without it coming off as me “yelling at heathens”. That is my problem i find myself too angry to write something that doesn't come across as finger wagging. I find myself and an ANGRY CHRISTIAN - 

    For Palm Sunday I challenged myself to write a dramatic piece for service instead of a regular sermon. I found myself writing from the view point of two disciples watching Jesus as he goes through the day of Palm Sunday. As I characterized these two disciples I found myself pealing back the layers of the two very distinct sides of my own heart.

    First we have Andrew, who heard Christ’s call to humility and service. Seeing Christ as humbling; riding on an ass, healing the sickest in the community, and calling for the children to come and listen. Clearly as a youth director I like the last bit the most but it all comes down to service. A King who made himself a slave for the sake of the world. My heart yearns to be that kind of servant. One who gives all that he has for the sake of the world, and for no greater goal than to make the world better with nothing more than my actions and heart. Yet what Andrew missed was a great fire inside him. He didn’t dare take any radical action, to say or do anything that might alienate anyone in anyway. For lack of better words, this side of my heart is kind of a wimp.

    Second we have Peter, you might now him as the man who cut off a roman centurion’s ear in the garden of Gethsemane.  He was on the “road to revolution” bandwagon. You might even say he was the one who was driving it. He wanted a KINGDOM for Jesus and not just a church to rise around him. He wanted to fight and over turn what he saw as a corrupt church and government. He wanted radical action for a radical leader like Jesus. He was ready to take drastic measures no matter the cost; who it hurt, who would die, what would be the consequence. This is why when I wrote about Peter he was most excited when Jesus TOSSED TABLES and WHIPPED BANKERS. He saw people manipulating the faith for personal gain and want to burn those responsible to the ground. This side of my heart is HUNGER for action, and to invoke change in a very real way in the world! This side of my heart wants Preachers who ask their congregations for Multimillion dollar jets to be dragged into the street and flogged. This side of my heart wants politicians who say when a woman has her baby cut from her womb that is was “God’s wrath for allowing abortions in America” to be publicly stoned for their ridiculous blasphemy.  I want most of the Indiana house of representatives to realize they are not CHRISTIANS. They are, and I mean this from the bottom of my heart, fearful hate filled bigots that remind me of what a human would look like if God made us from SNAKE SHIT instead of mud. 

     So I look at these two disciples that I found inside my own heart and have only one questions. Can I be an ANGRY CHRISTIAN? Can I be a follower of Christ, a follower who is called to preach the gospel at all times, forgive abundantly, love joyfully, live hopefully, and serve endlessly? Can I be Angry with those who take the word of God and distort it to be used as a tool of discrimination, those who use the joy God gives as a wealth acquiring industry, or worst of all saying that when horrendous things happen it is God’s perfect justice?

So here I kneel, on the wrong side of the cross, and I look to my lord and a pray. Dear savior let my heart be ever focused on your service. Let my words be as light, shining into the dark places of the world bringing encouragement, hope, and safety. Let my actions reflect those of the lamb whom sacrificed everything for this world. Let me learn patients when I see your love being twisted. Patients to help those who are more confused than encouraged. Patients to walk the gospel journey and not just preach it. Patients to wait upon the lord.  When all of my words fall on the rocks and break, let me take heart in the words from Galatians 6. 1Brothers and sisters, if someone is caught in a sin, you who live by the Spirit should restore that person gently. But watch yourselves, or you also may be tempted. 2Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ. 3If anyone thinks they are something when they are not, they deceive themselves. 4Each one should test their own actions. Then they can take pride in themselves alone, without comparing themselves to someone else, 5for each one should carry their own load.6Nevertheless, the one who receives instruction in the word should share all good things with their instructor.

7Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. 8Whoever sows to please their flesh, from the flesh will reap destruction; whoever sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life. 9Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. 10Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers.

As I speak to my God, who is a paradox, I find understanding in the paradox of my heart. That I should be set on fire and passionately live an outspoken gospel, while making sure my actions match my beliefs. I can be an angry Christian. Christ was outraged in Matt. 21:12-13 I can be outraged when people use God to make money in illegitimate ways, but it is more important to remember the next moment in Matt21:14-16 that while he was Tossing tables of the greedy and wicked, he turned to those who need healing and cured them. The children who cried out hosanna were a blessing and not a nuisance but the most joyous of praise. For my wrath will never turn a human heart but will only allow myself to be tempted. For if someone is preaching an impostors gospel they only deceive themselves. God cannot be mocked and men reap what they sow. I have to SOW love, joy, peace, patients, and let God’s spirit correct those who have strayed from his path. I can be angry, but I should never let that anger control me. So to answer the question that started these ramblings, NO, I cannot be an angry Christian. An angry Christian is someone who allows their emotions to control them and not the holy spirit. Yet I can, and actively find myself, a Christian who gets angry, but as Galatians reminds me, that is my load to carry and not a burden to put on others. We have to remember above all the Hate we see, above all the greed, above all the bigotry, we must correct this world GENTLY. We reap what we sow, what have you been sowing?

Let your words be LIGHT – shining in the darkness.

A Finger Pointing Society

I don't know if it is the political discourse our country is pissed at, or the fact i was yelling at terrible referees at the Highlands Ranch soccer game, or the Anti-abortion bumper sticker next to the Beer is Freedom bumper sticker i saw this morning that set me off but i have come to a concrete conclusion. As a people we are doing far to much finger pointing and not enough self evaluating.

We do it every day if we mean to or not. When you are driving down the road mumbling, "this moron is going to slow!" or "look how fast that MANIAC is driving!". If you are arguing who's fault the shutdown is, or who is to blame for the education system in this country for being a steaming pile of crap. Someone else is to blame because obviously you have all the answers. FUN FACT - YOU DO NOT! Ever person does have the right answers for themselves. unfortunately we live in a world of diversity and individuality. No person will learn, speak, sing, dance, play, write, cry, or fart like anyone else on this planet. Christ knew this and made sure everyone he talked to knew about it. "When you pray  do it in a dark room so it is between you and your father in heaven" He knew life is about personal relationships not outspoken acts of self righteousness. Lives are changed in the quiet moments when relationship is valued over righteousness.

I guess what really got my goat this morning was the Anti-Abortion bumper sticker. It stated - If your fetus isn't a baby then you ain't a mother. i laughed first at the Ain't because using that kind of verbiage on such a sensitive issue made the driver not only seem like a moron but also someone who deserves no voice in such an intimate and personal issue, and the fact there was a BEER IS FREEDOM bumper sticker makes me think, "before you talk about someone else "murdering a baby" maybe you should work on your alcoholism and domestic violence issues." But what do i know, i am not in their life, or do i know the circumstance of the placement of that bumper sticker. Just like owner of the sticker has NO IDEA what a woman having to make such a difficult decision has to go through.

So here i am standing on the wrong side of the cross asking Christ what are we to do about things we truly and deeply believe in! The answer is simple, LIVE THEM OUT. Christ calls us to lives of actions not lives fighting against others, instead an internal struggle of self improvement. Not an external struggle of "BE LIKE ME OR GO TO HELL" because if i had to be like you i would hate myself, mainly because i hate assholes. We are to reflect and judge our own actions, because those are the only actions we can change. Looking down at others and judging them creates division when we should have celebrations. If you think you are ok judging because you got it right, remember what Christ said in Matthew. "Judge not lest ye' be... justified by something said earlier in this book, I'm not sure, i didn't read the whole thing its really long, but is probably in there somewhere, look in Leviticus."

Here is what the solution to our finger pointing society boils down to -
1) Stop thinking your way is always right, because you will always be wrong about that.
2) When you love one another as Christ loves us, we don't always have to like each other and that's OK .
3) If you believe in Anti or Pro something then live it out in your own life, and support those making difficult decisions without passing judgment. Because in those moments you can be Christ for someone else. Yelling at someone because you think YOU ARE God's voice is a disgrace.