In or Out?

I have moved far away from stuff.  I live in a little town just outside of Edmonton called Devon.  There’s no Starbucks, the only clothing store is Fields, and to get anywhere else is 20+ minutes down a bumpy, although paved, road.  It may not be considered off the beaten path for some, but to me it’s the country.  Suffice to say, it’s one of life’s little jokes that I now reside here.  It’s ok, I can take a joke 😉

The attitudes I’m coming across here shouldn’t surprise me, but they do.  I expected to find people living in the country because they love the sprawling beauty all around them, because they like to hear birds more than the sound of traffic, because they prefer a simpler life.  I’m sure many do live here because of that.  Then there’s the other faction who lives out here because they don’t want to live near other people.  They think people suck, and when you get more of them together they suck harder.  Ok, I get this…kinda.  I wonder if any of these people have considered the fact that they’re people.  Seriously.  How can you be a self-hating human being?  I’m getting really tired of hearing “I don’t like people”.  I know there are bad people, I know bad things happen…and I also know that if all the people who see the problems we have  move away, then we have a much bigger problem.  I’ve always thought that if you see a disconnect  and it affects your world, then you’re there for a reason. “ Evil prospers when good men do nothing” was repeated a lot by my Mother  growing up.  So you don’t like how things are going?  Do something about it.  No running away allowed. 

The same applies for church.  Yes, Christians suck.  We’re a people group that takes self-righteous to the next level.  We should be modeling something better, but we don’t most of the time.  Because we’re people: we’re scared, we’re sad, we’re broken too.  The answer is not to leave church because of us, it’s to stay and contribute.  It’s to add your presence and your view to the mix, to be an example of something better.  If you want the world around you to be better, stay in it and add your two cents.  I know a lot of us have come to believe that removing ourselves from church, from communities, even from friend groups we don’t agree with is the right thing to do.  I’m here to tell you it absolutely is not.

 You earn the right to disagree with me when you do something about it.