Was I harsh?

I think perhaps that my post last night might have come across as a little harsh and as ONLY being directed at the church I currently attend.  It wasn’t.  This same type of stuff has occurred in most every church I’ve attended all across the US. 

It’s inevitable that people will fall through the cracks, that people will feel left out or pushed aside or uncared for at church at some point.  We (the church) are only human after all.

I used recent examples, which happened to take place at my church, which I LOVE, because they were fresh, but I was really talking about the church universal.  I think we, as a church, are missing opportunities, opportunities to share God’s love and acceptance. 

I used personal examples but I could easily use worldly examples; homosexuals, the poor, the old, the in betweens (college age), the single mother, the broken (in mind, body or spirit), those who just look or act different than us.  We tend to push them aside or over look them. I don’t think it happens intentionally, but it does happen.  We want to help from afar but Jesus went right to them.  He touched them.  He loved them, and he calls us to do the same.  Jesus was intentional and we need to be as well.  When I say us or we I’m talking about those who follow Christ, those who call themselves Christian and yes this includes me too. 

I am by no means perfect.  I have lots to work on in my own life.  I am a work in progress as we all are.  Every day I try to be a better person than I was the day before… sometimes I succeed but I often fail but I get up the next morning with same intent: Be a better person today. 

I get my feelings hurt; I read into things and make them about me when they aren’t.  Unfortunately, I sometimes judge people, which is wrong.  But each day I wake up and admit my shortcomings and work at being a better person today, to be more intentional and to be more outwardly focused.  It’s a start and a new start every morning, sometimes every minute if I’m having a bad day.

Anyway, I do still wonder, as I said in my post last night, if we as “the church” are measuring up; measuring up to what we are called to be.  I know that we can’t reach everyone, some don’t want to be reached but there are so many who do want to be reached, who are pleading to be reached, to be touched, to be a part and I hope that as a Church we will work towards being more intentional about reaching out and touching.