Stuff Christian Girls Say, Do, Think, Are...

Most of you have probably seen this by now, but if you haven't, take a moment: 

While it's quite the hyperbole, I think it does a fairly good job of highlighting the 'crazy' that I speak of so frequently. It's humorous because there's an element of truth in what they've captured. These might not be the exact phrases or words we use consistently (although some of them are spot on), but we can very much be women who throw around the 'proper' Christian lingo like it's our day job. When did we become these over-spiritual, naive girls who speak things without even considering what our words really mean? It's as though we're trying so hard to exist in this world of ideals and perfection that we've forgotten what reality tastes like. It's world that we think we're 'supposed' to exist in, so we conform to patterns of a Christian society that strips us of being who we really are, of who we were created to be.

We block ourselves off from the world and thrive in these Christian bubbles where we talk about Jesus, God and the Bible and feel good about ourselves for the number of times that we pray, the fact that we had our 'quiet time' that morning, and how nice we were to the heathens in our classes. We make time for Bible studies and set up meetings with other girls to establish discipleship and accountability.  We fill up our schedules with ministry and strive to be involved and busy and often find our worth in our time spent doing rather than being.

We find Christian phrases rolling off our tongues without really believing their words to be true, and we sing worship songs to the Lord without reflecting on what the words actually mean.  We take Proverbs 31 and claim parts of it over our life without being willing to understand what it means to really 'fear the Lord'...we only want to be seen as a 'wife of noble character' and so we try to create results without first addressing the core issues.

I say we, but I mean 'I'.  I am guilty of all of these things.
I'm guilty of taking this societal image of what a Christian woman is 'supposed' to be like, and adhering my life to the various actions, words, lifestyle that has been deemed 'good' and 'right'.

While none of these things are necessarily bad or wrong, I think I've missed the point.

Strive as I may to achieve status of being a 'good' Christian, I've decided the term shouldn't exist. 'Cause in my desire for perfection, I aim to please the people around me more than the living God.  A God who doesn't desire conformity or legalism.  A God who doesn't desire for me to find my identity in doing right or wrong. A God who doesn't desire a schedule packed with serving if it constantly overrides sitting at His feet.

He's telling us to choose what is better...not necessarily what's expected.

I want to mean what I say, I want to say what I mean.  I want to drop all the jargon and empty words that aren't true of where I'm at or what I think.  I want to be my own person even if that means I hate coffee and books about purity and dating.

I want to not be like other Christians that I think are cool.  I want to be me...and I want to be a woman who lives according to what Christ says is good and pleasing, not what Christianity says is good and pleasing.

Tear up your checklists (even the ones that just exist in your head) today.
You'll never be good enough to earn the gift that's been so freely given.
You'll never get it all right.
The more you strive to become all these things you think you're 'supposed' to be, the more empty and trapped you'll feel inside.  There's not freedom there- trust me, I know.

Let's find freedom in a Gospel that's radical and unlike anything we've ever known.
Let's allow ourselves to be surprised by a mysterious God instead of reciting off empty chants and phrases because that's what we've always known.

There's more than this.
Of that, I am sure.

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