Christians are not perfect.
Christians do not all experience a sense of peace in their lives. The truth is
that many Christians are as miserable and empty as their unbelieving friends and
neighbors. They feel as if a great weight is hanging around their necks and it
is keeping them from moving forward in life and enjoying the life God is giving
them. These Christians think that because God loves them and they believe in
Jesus Christ that they should be free of the struggles that weigh them down or
that these struggles should be easier to overcome.
The
reality of life is that the same things that hurt the unbelieving world equally
hurt Christians. Christians grow up with an alcoholic parent, experience the
trauma of incest and other unspeakable abuses from those who are responsible
for their well-being. None of us are immune from the attitudes and behaviors
that scar our hearts and souls. These struggles do not have to be of such tragic
proportions to have a lasting negative affect on our lives.
Broken
people raise broken children. The sense of personal inadequacy may come from a
father who was home but never had a word of encouragement or time to play with
their children. Bitter memories could be linked to a mother who demanded
perfection and controlled every thought or movement of her little boy or girl.
There exist other homes that foster cynicism, permissiveness, harshness or
manipulation to such an extreme that the child never senses true love.
God uses
relationships and processes to change people. The sin we commit and the sin
committed against us is known to God. He has a plan to address both. The plan
is a life of transformation one day at a time. It is not normally a change that
occurs instantly. God works to make us into the people He desires us to be. He
does this in a way that allows us to then minister to the world of hurting
people around us. He even makes us the instruments of change for others.
