I am a Christian.

I’ve found I have a problem reading the news lately. Not because anything it talks about is any worse than before, but because of how people handle things. Every important news article has people commenting on it, and a lot of the things they’re saying are not kind or respectful. For example, I read an article this morning about the plane that crashed in Alaska. What was the first thing that I saw when I went to the comments? Was it people saying they would keep the people in their thoughts and prayers? That it was a tragic accident and how sorry they were? No. It was a comment about how someone hoped Sarah Palin was on that plane.

Let me get something straight here. I do not like Sarah Palin. I still have faith that Obama can and will do something for this country, he just has to clean up the mess he was left with (and not just from Bush). I enjoyed the SNL skits making fun of Sarah Palin and Hilary Clinton. But would I ever wish death upon them? No. Would I ever wish death upon anyone? Absolutely not. But at the bottom of this article, which talks about how people might be dead, someone wishes death upon someone. Unacceptable. There are a lot of other things running around in my head right now that are upsetting me, but that’s not really what I want to talk about right now. It was, but now I feel like there’s something else I need to talk about more.

My belief on being a Christian is not that I must got to church every Sunday, and help with the youth group, and read the Bible everyday and pray before I got to sleep every night. That is part of religion. And I want nothing to do with religion. Routines and habits and rules will not get you anywhere with God. He doesn’t want you to just go through a list of things that will get you to Heaven. He wants to love you, and for you to love Him back. Christianity to me is not about doing everything right. It is about having a relationship with God, and giving your life to him. Saying “God, I trust that you will work in my life. Whatever happens is exactly what I needed.” I love God. I have a relationship with Him. Sometimes I have a hard time trusting him with things, but I work on it. But do you know what the greatest thing is that He has taught me? Love people. Love everybody. Not just your friends, not just your family, not just the people you go to church with, not just Christians. Love everybody. Some of the greatest people I have ever met are not Christians, including my Mom. Now, I will try my hardest to get my Mom to love God because I can’t imagine living my eternal life without her there by my side. Being a Christian does not automatically make you a good person, and not being a Christian does not automatically make you a bad person. My job as a believer of Christ is not to judge people, that’s God’s job. My job is to show them His love and save as many people as I can. And how am I supposed to do that? LOVE THEM. That is the only way that I know how, and the only way that I ever will treat people. I love every single one of my friends, especially the ones that don’t believe in God. If you want to be gay, be gay. If you want to believe in Islam, believe in Islam. I will love you the same. I will hate the sin, and even though I won’t like doing it, I will probably tell you at least once that I don’t agree with what you’re doing. But am I going to shun you, not talk to you anymore? No. That’s not showing you love.

Unfortunately, that unloving attitude is the side of Christianity that most non-believers see and believe. That is why Christianity has such a bad name. So I am here to tell you that I love you, no matter who or where you are, or what you do. I love you. God loves you, and he wants to have a relationship with you. I know that many Christian’s can be terribly intolerant, and I apologize for all of the hurt you have had in your life because of that. That is not what God wants for you, he wants you to be loved. To be happy. It angers me just as much, if not more, than it angers you when you see religious people being intolerant. They’re being hypocritical. That is probably the only way they no how to show their faith to others, which is terribly disappointing. I wish that all Christians were tolerant of others, but just like everything else, there will always be those who are close-minded. I’m not condemning them, speaking against them, or angry. I merely wish to tell my story, my purpose, and explain to you what my goal is. And my goal is to reach out to people, to love people. To change lives.