Fake and Phony

The girls went to youth group with Michael tonight. Every time they go they come home with the same complaints, that certain people are phony. People don't talk to them, or they act differently. Michael said the same. He has friends he has known for a long time there that in the last year or two have just started to act so differently toward him. I am crazy about Michael - almost like I am about my own kids. All the kids who have known me over the years know that when I love somebody - I don't do it with half a heart - I do it hook, line and sinker. The fact that people have misconceptions about him makes me want to poke them in the eye. (I know, very Christlike of me.) Has he made some mistakes, heck yeah - haven't we all? The thing that really bugs me is that in Christian community there is no room for anything short of perfection, or at least the appearance of perfection. What the kids are finding that makes me so sad, is that there is no room for mistakes. Once you screw up or do something others find unbecoming, you will never be given a chance to redeem yourself. I have news for them - Christ redeemed us all and they don't get to say whether you, or me, or Michael, or Kendra, or anyone else is in right standing. It is not their assessment of your heart that counts. I am glad that Michael doesn't allow "them" to change who he is because they don't approve of him. The rest - the icky stuff, the growing up, the sin to be overcome - all of that is the Lord's territory. The problem is that all too often God can't clean up the mess, cause other people are trying to do His job for Him. God loves you, Christ died for you, and in the end, what they think doesn't really matter. Find a way to love Christ in spite of what some would-be Christians try to say He is. They have Him all wrong.