Christianity : A form of Madness?

"It's official, Christians generally tend to put me off. As a cohort Christians are a bunch of messed up people and borderline crazy. A sad truth considering I am one of them."

The above is a statement I tweeted last night in frustration. I later messaged a friend ranting and raving on the topic and upon further exploration of what I was saying and where the thought and feelings had originated from (years and years of bubbling under) I gained a further understanding of what  my fellow brethren and I might look like to an outsider. I saw why and how we could be and are pushing away more and more people from God. An action contrary to the fulfilment of our mandate to draw men to him. I understand why the world would not take us seriously. The deeper you get and the more 'religious' you become directly co-relates to the loonier you become. The more radical you are, the more you 'get it', the more irritating and insane you seem.

WHY??

The Christian FAITH: The substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things unseen (Hebrews 11:1)

These are just the basics but we believe in an unseen God. We fight among ourselves and can never seem to agree. We obsess over and dedicate our lives to the intangible. We believe it is true and that we are right and yet cannot really 'prove' it. Then we try bashing the world into becoming like us because they are 'lost' and have not received the revelation. 

That alone is enough to put someone off BUT what really triggered the outrage was a documentary I watched about Christians in the USA who believe that 'God hates the Fags' and that 'God hates America'. They have dedicated their lives too preaching and spreading this gospel. One would have to watch it to understand and the above is an entire topic on its own but what frustrated me and what I didn't understand was where does one get off preaching HATE? How is that meant to bring people to LOVE God and the understanding that God LOVES US? What baffled me more was that I passed on these sentiments to a Christian brother of mine who proceeded to say he agreed with those sentiments. He is yet to explain to me why. I am curious to understand but until I am schooled what I say and my belief is one of the most quoted scriptures and the cornerstone of the Christian faith, John 3:16 begins; "For GOD so LOVED the world.....” I am not condoning sin and I believe God does hate it but being one sided like this baffles me and unfortunately these are the Christians that the world sees. WHERE IS THE LOVE?

The other group, the bulk of us, are busy playing church...acting holy and possibly passing judgement and persecution on those that are not like us. This brings me to my second light bulb moment: The Facebook posts. Personally I’m guilty of these too but to be honest Christians can be annoying. For many it's all about God. God this, God that, God did this for me; He is great blah blah blah. Then the verses, verses and verses and verses on my newsfeed. Oftentimes they can be entire paragraphs or sermons. Does this draw people closer to God? Or is it merely a religious exterior? Are we being real? Somehow I believe that if we showed ourselves for who we truly are we would get better results. Sometimes we do more than read the bible. We watch TV, we go out. Sometimes we get disappointed, we get sad, we get angry at God, we sin. If we are honest and open, not just about how bright our futures seem and how much he has done for us then maybe people can relate. They can identify their lives in us and want to see what makes us full of joy and crazy about this Bible.

I also attended a church conference this weekend and during one of the sessions I zoned out and began watching the 'theatrics' from an external point of view. I go to a Pentecostal church and what I saw that afternoon was people weeping, people falling all over the place and people speaking in funny tongues with their eyes closed and their hands in the air. This was hardly a 'normal' scene and at one point the preacher lady was blowing into peoples ears. Now form an external point of view, imagine a 21 year old man looking for God or merely an escape form the troubles in his world and heart walks into a church and sees this. What would he think? Madness possibly? Would he understand it? Would he come back? It takes a special kind of Revelation to tap into and understand these going ons, the Holy Spirit I suppose but if we are to be winning souls from out there maybe we should re-evaluate. I know many will stand up to contend this, Acts 2 is also a testimony, but it is what is. What does the world see when they look at us, at the Church?

With all this said it then dawned on me that this isn't anything new. It actually isn't. I took it back to the word of God. I was reminded of how John the Baptist was and is considered by many to have been a 'freak'. The bible says he lived in the wild and his food was locusts (Mathew 3:4). I was reminded of Paul, previously known as Saul. He was a well-respected man in society who stood strong and proud in his persecution of Christians. I suppose that was the norm for him and he probably made a lot of sense when he was Saul but then he had this encounter. An encounter that changed him and his name too! It was an encounter he probably could never logically explain to anyone to get them to understand why his personality, life mission, dreams and goals shifted so drastically. I mean one day he was killing the followers of Jesus and the next day he is out there preaching the gospel, Holy Ghost filled and ready to DIE for God. Kinda sounds like something in his brain snapped to me.

Acts 26 vs. 24-25 says: And as he was saying these things  in his defense  Festus said with a loud voice, "Paul,  you are out of your mind; your great learning is driving you out of your mind." But Paul said, "I am not out of my mind, most excellent Festus, but I am speaking true and rational words.

I also think the Prophets where generally considered crazies because in 2 Corinthians 5: 13 Paul states, “For if we are 'out of our mind' as some say, it is for God; if we are in our right mind it is for you."

In Acts 2 that I mentioned earlier, I’d like to believe the setting was one of what we call church today. The bible tells us of how the Holy Spirit came upon the disciples and they began to speak in unknown tongues. People came in to see what was going on and believed they were drunk but Paul then explains what's happening and the Bible tells us that that day 3000 people became believers. Amazing right?

Then comes Jesus. He was odd from the beginning. Born of a virgin, in little Bethlehem. The things he did were off the norm. He walked around claiming to be the Messiah but his 'life story' didn't fit to what one would expect. One story I can think of was his healing someone on the Sabbath. This was absolutely ridiculous considering the law did come from His Father. He did it anyway. He sat with the Pharisees and the tax collectors. These were the bad guys. The bible tells us HE DIED and after three days rose again. There is no normalcy in that. Then there is us, the Christians, that subscribe to that.

So what am I saying?

A whole lot actually but in summary I love God and I know he is real. I understand that to many this can seem like a form madness, I agree. I read the bible sometimes and listen to some pastors preach I'm like ooooookaaaaay but it really is okay because although most things make no or little sense to me (sometimes often bringing to confusion) the bottom line makes sense. I also understand that my mandate involves not only myself but the world around me. I know I do not have all the answers, I cannot explain and oftentimes don't understand what others do or believe  but it's like that for most things in life. If you really think about it. 

I can't answer for the next person but my 'walk' is on me. 

Love Always
Chido Dziva Chikwari