Love and Acceptance

   We want to blend in.  We want to be part of the crowd; accepted and loved by all.  Our society discourages being different and seeks to put each of us in a box to better define us.  If we don’t fit neatly into one of the preferred categories we become a bother, pushed aside and ignored.

   Seeking social acceptance is important to us; without it we feel we are lost, searching for something to complete us.  However, the friendship and inclusion of this world will lead us nowhere.  The love and acceptance we should strive for is that of God.

   The early Christians stood out from the societies in which they lived.  In a world that ignored the poor, the down-trodden and those ostracized by their society they took in the sick, the poor and the homeless.  They treated everyone with the love that can only come from God.  Because they were different they were noticed by those around them.  In many cases it meant persecution and even death.  Yet they suffered those things gladly in the name of God.

   Today it can be difficult to identify Christians.  There seems to be very little to differentiate them from the rest of society.  They want to blend in.  I believe we need to take a lesson from those early Christians who wore their faith openly and bravely.  Others need to see God in us by the way we live our life.  It was said of the early Christians that you could tell them by the way they loved.  Let us strive to love as they loved.

   Make a choice to be an obvious Christian.  Wear your cross; say grace before meals in restaurants.  Offer God’s blessing to those you meet.  Speak up for what is right and denounce the wrong.  Stand for God.

   By doing these things we can make a difference.  We may suffer some persecution from our self-centered prideful society.  But we are only visitors in this world; a world that will pass away.  Its’ acceptance is fleeting and temporary at best.  Seek instead acceptance in God’s kingdom; a world of love waiting for us at the end of our sojourn.