Wednesday, November 16, 2016

People are not Projects

Pray for our President

I hear so many christians say to pray for President Elect Trump.  They are saying to pray for Trump to change his heart and turn to Jesus.  This logic flies in the face of what I've heard Christians saying for the past few years.  Remember Aladdin?  Genie says you can't wish for someone to fall in love with you.  Prayer, IMO, works the same way.  You can't pray for someone else to change.  Well, you can.  But I don't believe it does anything.  So what have I heard most Christians say over the past few years?  That you should pray to change your own heart, not someone elses.  Instead of praying for Donald Trump,  try praying that you'd begin to see him in a new way.  The way God wants you to see Donald Trump.  That's what Christians are supposed to do, right?

I'll give an example from my own life.  Back when I was a strong christian and had totally radical beliefs about the power of the holy spirit I met someone.  This person was a great resource to me in many different areas.  They became a friend.  But this person was not a christian.  At the time I was worried they were going to hell.  They were living in sin.  I had to do something to save them.  So I began praying that God would use me to reveal Jesus to them in a way that they'd never seen before.  Fervently I prayed.  Guess who changed?  Yep.  Two thumbs pointing at this guy.  This was about three years ago.  The process of deconstructing my faith began.  Because I prayed with the intent to change someone else....I was the one who changed.  Everything I have ever believed about what it meant to be a Christian got flipped upside down.  Kind of like a table.  And I believe Jesus flipped it.

It's not our job to change people.  It's our job as humans to love one another.

When I was in Amway, everyone I saw had a dollar sign over their head.  Maybe I'd pushed my christian beliefs onto my business practices to much.  Often times, christians see people and the first order of business is to find out if they are a christian or not.  And if they aren't, it's their job to minister them for the sole purpose of conversion.   I've found lately that it's much easier to love someone without any goals for their life.  That you should just be their friend. Be with them through life.  You don't always have to have the answers.  They are people, not projects.

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