Pros and Cons to being Christian

This sounds rather subjective, but being Christian isn’t all it can be cracked up to be.

Imagine living out your whole life, your whole existence based on the premise that one day you will have to leave it and gain absolutely nothing that you held so close to in your time here. That is Christianity at a very surface level.

When you look at the Bible, you find out very early that people do make mistakes, and depending if you are reading the Old or New Testament, Jesus or YHWH does well to forgive them of their sins and gives them a way to move on. This is the Christian Faith, but the Christian Faith isn’t something that one can merely look at like a boy does a pretty girl, or even a realtor looks at a new house. Even with this disclaimer, let us look through the lends of a scholar, or even a philosopher and see how they would list the pros and cons of being a Christian.

CON: YOU WILL FEEL ACCEPTED LESS

By your friends, by the media, by many circles of influences that you live in, yes you will be acceptance far less when you are a Christian. When you are going towards your God-given purpose, you will be accepted far less because you will refuse to do the things that ultimately got you those friends in the beginning. Getting absolutely sh**faced and pregaming with your friends before going out, will not longer be apart of your DNA.

During this time, you will also feel alone. Congratulations, you have made it to the end of yourself, your reputation for being the party animal you once were may very be gone if it only hinged on how drunk you could get. Your tongue will become more considerate of where it goes, and what it says. Your language will change, and is it will change, you will began to grow a friction between you and the terrible things that you realize were being said around you. This could be gossip of others, or it could be tearing either yourself or the dreams you have by others around you.

Welcome, you have now made it this far. You have arrived at the end of yourself, so therefore it is time to provide a pro to Christianity.

PRO: YOU WILL BE ACCEPTED

No, you will not feel accepted, and no this does not go against what was just mentioned previously.

There is an outstanding difference, to be or not to be, that is the question.

For many of us, we don’t even know who we are. There is no sense of “to be” we don’t know where is our goal, or we are simply trying to hit a moving target. This is what culture will often teach us, that we need to be x, y, and z at the same time, as they are moving through separate lines and functions that will continue the change and are irrational functions and extremely unpredictable, and when you eventually hit all these values at the same time then that is when you will finally be accepted.

Imagine someone coming up to you and asking you to grow bear claws and fur, then demanding that you go into the ocean and swim like a fish and live off eating algae and pay your taxes every before 8PM or else you will be rejected by the people of that society. Would you even agreed? No! So why do we agree everyday in the lives of work, home, relationships, and even online.

Now imagine that you are born a bear, and someone tell you to stop fishing with a rod and bait, and fish like a bear with your claws and jaw. This is what it feel like to be cast out of being accepted, it is not only easier, but it will also allow us to grow.

No man can grow unless they know why they must grow for.

No, you will not feel accepted by culture or society when you accept the walk of a Christian, but that is not what it is about. The Christian walk is more about you being able to fully develop into the person that God has called you to be.

CON: YOU WILL THINK YOU FAILED 24/7

Honestly the Christian Faith has pretty high expectation for those who are trying to pursue Christ, and the expectations for that exceed anything you have thought to have been through before. This isn’t just a walk in a park, this the road of unrealistic and irrational expectations of perfection and completely devotion to a higher being on a different plane of existence than where we are right now.

You will need to fast, which is basically going against your human need of having to eat food to be able to survive, you will also be able to dedicate time everyday for you to pray and read the Bible. Don’t forget that you mustn’t curse or ever put anything else before you and God. If that doesn’t set the bar then you have the antecedence of the our America Bill of Rights, to be replaced by the Christian Ten Commandments of things that are not right.

The Christian faith sets the bar high. The only thing in that faith higher than the standards that are put up is God himself.

PRO: YOU WILL ALWAYS HAVE THE VICTORY

Such unrealistic standards and irrational goals can only be achieved with an overloaded amount of grace. That grace is needed everyday in the life of a Christian.

No, will you not also be successful in your own definition and strength, but think about it like that. When we define something, we are placing borders, and finite lines on what exactly we want to accomplish, and more or less, that result is also a feeling (more into this later). The will of God is much larger than anything we can hope to even put within our finite means of goals and aspirations. It is larger and the scope of it is eternal while our is simply in the present. When we measure our results by incorrect units, we will ultimately never think we hit the target, so the question becomes, what is the appropriate measuring units by which to measure our success.

Just to challenge our own perspectives and how we may see the world, we need to take a second glance and see our success by not being the measuring units in the cup, but rather our hands and shoulder that are raising the cup up. It is our obedience to hold the cup regardless of how much is in it. In one of the books in the Bible it speaks very beautifully about how in a mighty mission, a general of the Israelites began to put his arms down. Regardless of the number of soldiers on the field, or the strength of those soldiers, the victory was not in that, but rather his ability to keep his hands up. This is key in our lives as well, we must not get distracted by the results of filling up ourselves in God’s Word, but rather the obedience in filling ourselves up with God’s presence.

CONCLUSION

The Christian Faith isn’t exactly easy. It isn’t exactly impossible either. For every bit of the world that is thrown at Christian, God will supply something even bigger to create grace, a faith and love for his people. The Christian faith would be impossible without Jesus Christ helping us, forgiving us, and guiding us every step of the way.