Thank you TEL 300 (ok I'll never say that again!)

I've been at work since 7 this morning and I consider it a miracle I survived my first cold bike ride of the year (40 this morning!). Alas, I forced myself to do some homework after I warmed up and in my TEL 300 class, our group project consists of determining if the Kentucky Kernel (our campus newspaper) has a more liberal/conservative, positive/negative, or focus on certain issues kind of slant. Consequently, I just spent 2 hours reading Editorials and Letters to the Editor from my freshman year of college. This, combined with last night's small group discussion on discipleship, has led me to this thought:

It's becoming harder to be in the world and not of it.

As I was reading old opinions about the Genocide Awareness Project that came my first semester of college (they put up huge graphic pictures of aborted babies, people protested, police presence was heavy, it was during midterms week, etc), I found my face getting warm and my tension rising. This all happened two years ago, and it had nothing directly to do with me! It saddens me that much of this world believes Christians are "those kind of people." You know, the ones who stand in the Free Speech Area at the Student Center and tell people they're going to hell, the ones who put "God" and "the Bible" in their Facebook profile under Interests and Favorite Books and then get drunk on the weekends (notice I didn't say that they drink, but that they get drunk), the ones who say they are Christian, which inherently means "follower of Christ," and then they live solely for themselves.

This is beside the point, though, because what saddens me even more is that followers of Christ, myself included, engage in heated arguments, get drug into insulting debates, and do not show love when confronted with conflicting beliefs. I don't know about you, but I get angry when someone disagrees with my beliefs about abortion... or same-sex marriage... or even gambling in the state of Kentucky. I get angry when people criticize me for boycotting Abercrombie, Hollister and Target and still shopping at Wal-Mart.

This is not how it should be.

If I remember correctly, love "is not easily angered" according to 1 Corin. 13, and in Colossians when it said "you must now rid yourself of all such things" the first thing listed is anger (ch. 3). When I get angry, I am not able to show Christ's love. That sounds so puerile, and I wish I could jazz it up and sound theological, but then it would lose its substance. Plus the simplicity of the language does not account for the difficulty of carrying out its opposite. To show Christ's love to the world, to be in the world and not of it, I must not act out of anger. I need to let the peace of Christ rule in my heart. I need to not give the devil a foothold, and when I open my mouth, what comes out should be building someone up or be of benefit to those who listen.

So that I pray for this post, that it be of benefit to you who have listened. Peace.