Hi. My name is Cecilia.
And I have opinions.
You might not like them.
But you are reading my blog, so you’re going to get my opinions.
You should probably let that sink in before you continue reading.
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The older I get, the less I love Christianity.
The older I get, the more I love Jesus.
How does that happen? I think it happened when God placed people in my life that have seriously been hurt by the rules of Christianity. “Popular” Christianity would have you believe that if you are divorced, gay, living with someone, a Democrat, gamble, drink, watch TV, an illegal immigrant, listen to Rock-n-Roll, or Anti-Tea Party, that you are LESS THAN. But LESS THAN whom I wonder? Less than the committed Sunday church goer? Less than the Mega Preachers who shout into the masses of co-eds? Less than the person with the fish sticker on the back of their car (who probably just cut you off on the freeway)?
Listen, dear reader. There is no Less Than scale. There just isn’t. None of the rule listers are perfect. You aren’t, and for the record, this blog called Mrs.Not.So.Perfect, it’s about ME. So despite my witty banter and great eye brows, I am not perfect either.
Everyone sucks at being perfect.
Rush Limbaugh sucks.
Beth Moore sucks.
Phil Robertson sucks.
Your pastor sucks, and so do you.
I don’t know what you’ve done, I DO NOT CARE. Because I suck at perfection too. But I am not less than you, you are not less than me. WE ARE THE SAME. Talk about equality right? We all equally suck at being perfect.
And you know what?
It’s allllllllll good.
God’s love for you is GREATER THAN.
GREATER THAN ANYTHING.
ANYONE.
ANY BAD CHOICE.
ANY HURT.
I guess I just get sick to death of hearing about anything other than that. I am sick to death of LESS THAN HUMANS deciding who is and isn’t sinning, instead of WHO loves them and what that means. WHY and HOW do you get to separate people that are just like you? That’s GOD’S JOB! You aren’t qualified!!!!
You might read the Bible. You might have read it cover to cover. But if you read it and got something other than this out of it, you just another LESS THAN, HANDING OUT A RULE BOOK INSTEAD OF A LOVE STORY.
1. THE GREATEST COMMANDMENT: LOVE ONE ANOTHER
2. THE GREAT COMMISSION: TELL OTHERS ABOUT JESUS AND GOD’S LOVE.
The Bible is chock FULL of LESS THANS. Kings and Rulers who just can’t get it right. Those who have everything and lose it all, because they began to think they were better, GREATER THAN their fellow man. The Bible is also full of moments when A LESS THAN, like ourselves, connects to the GREATER THAN and does something amazing. A hooker that sneaks Jews into her city. A man that loses his wife and kids, his money and land, gets BOILS and is still faithful. A man that is betrayed by his brothers, left in a hole, thrown in jail and then basically becomes the VP of Egypt. An old woman who gives her last dime to the church. A man that takes it on FAITH that his girl didn’t get knocked up by another man and then has to hold his wife’s hand while she has the baby in a BARN!!!!
And then of course, there’s Jesus, who goes around telling EVERYONE he can about the GREATER THAN. It was his MISSION to make sure that people knew that we needed his help to connect to God’s GREATER THAN EVERYTHING love.
If that’s what He did, don’t you think you should too? When we sing in church, offering our praise and thanks, what are we singing about? Are we singing about how good we were this week? How many rules we followed? I think not. I think that most of the songs we sing, and that make our souls SOAR, are all about God loving us MORE than we deserve and how his LOVE IS GREATER THAN what we’ve done. So why are Christians constantly on the forefront of division? You may say, “Well, that just what we believe.” But fellow less thans!!!!!! It’s just dogma! It’s not the cake, or even the frosting. It’s the vanilla. One small piece of the entire presentation. Underneath all the rules of who is and who isn’t, and who has and has not, is the foundation.
My fellow LESS THANS, think hard before you give a list of do’s and don’ts. Think about whether you are drawing someone, a fellow LESS THAN, in close or pushing them away! Think hard about using your freedom of speech to express INCLUSION or EXCLUSION. Is your dogma turning people away? Was someone interested in Jesus before you said something and then decided to turn away because of your judgement??! That’s the REAL DEAL fellow less thans.
In the end, answer with the TRUTH! THE ONLY TRUTH!!
YOU ARE A LESS THAN
that has been SAVED BY GOD’S GREATER THAN EVERYTHING LOVE.
GIVE PEOPLE THE WHOLE CAKE, NOT JUST ONE INGREDIENT!
(Great, now I’m hungry for cake…)
mrs.not.so.perfect 