BLACKMAIL ME PLEASE, I AM A CHRISTIAN!!!

Have you ever in an attempt to ‘fight for yourself’ lost your temper and perhaps said the wrong thing and then someone or the person you are having it out with suddenly says “….and you are a Christian o!” hmm, am sure that was the end of that fight, at least from your own end.

Or maybe, you decided to be a little evangelist (ladies now) in a bus one day and then you constantly got some snickering look from an elderly lady who just didn’t stop looking at your well manicured nails to your well made hair with all the hair extensions falling around your shoulder, and then you probably had some guy who also didn’t stop staring at your lips not because he is hanging on to every word that came out of them with the hope that it would be his gateway to heaven, but because he obviously was day-dreaming about kissing them with how great they look with the pink lip gloss you got on them.

I remember once I went out to buy something and this guy on the street just won’t stop ‘chasing’ me. And when he kept asking for when I was going to be free, ‘church’ kept coming up, and God knows I wasn’t lying. He stopped and asked me if I was a Christian, and I said yes. And he went “I mean like a real Christian, born-again?” and I said yes. And then he bluntly told me I couldn’t be. Worried about what message I may have passed on aside the really cute short skirt I was wearing, he looked at my hair, which was a shinning red weave-on I fixed and said “a Christian can never look like this”. Bummed! Yet again!

I am sure I am not alone in this experience. In fact I have thrown profession of one’s faith as a Christian in their faces too before. But then reading the recent on-going ‘gist’ of Rev. Chris Okotie’s life and marriage and reading up people’s comments, I am beginning to realize how it seems like there is a certain expectation as what the life and character of a Christian should be- PERFECT! Without any regard I must say to their humanity.

This is not a talk to make right the wrongs of a Christian, but maybe a plea and wake-up call to the reality of their humanity. I am a Christian and I am not ashamed to say it. You saw me smoke that cigar, or sleep with that man for money, or maybe I am your husband/wife and I cheated on you. Or maybe worse, in my hurt I spread lies against you. The list can go on and on, but whatever it is really, while you keep giving me all that judgmental look and making those ugly remarks as well as putting a question mark on my Christianity, may I ask you a question, “Are you without sin?” if your answer is yes, feel free to cast your stone at me. And if not, yes I guessed as much, bow your head in shame and while you’re at it, close your eyes, fold your hands and whisper some repentance prayers to God for being a judge in my life and the lives of others.

If it is any consolation, I (Anita Young) did bow my head for the prayers over those I have judged and I suggest you do same!

Look, strive for perfection, but if somewhere along the line, you slip, do not let anyone put you on that Christian blackmail list where you couldn’t have been a ‘true child of God all along’. The devil does not come in the physical to tell you you are a failure, it is these blackmailers he uses, and since “...In the mouth of two or three witnesses a word is confirmed”, you confirm with him by allowing yourself believe it.

Let me paint a picture here for you, we are all quick to remembering David in the Bible as ‘a ma after God’s own heart’ and we have all at one time or the other prayed Psalm 51, the popular book of mercy and psalm of David. But so celebrated a man of Bible as he was, how often do we remember that he was a man of many imperfections? Some people argue that ‘he never committed same sin twice, well, but he did sin, and greatly at that. I mean murder+adultery+theft=??? Did that mean he couldn’t have been truly a man of God?

The truth is that, the devil is very smart and blackmail is a strong tool of his. This he uses against the Christian in our everyday lives. Someone wrongs you and you need to take an action, they say ‘forgive, walk in love’, and if you choose to go ahead, then something suddenly went wrong with your Christianity. You try to fight for your right, they tell you you must have lost your trust in ‘your God’, and the expectation is that you are to stand still and see the salvation of your God, right? Wrong! They want to rob you, shine your eyes! Nothing wrong with that.

It is really sickening to see the people try to take advantage of someone’s beliefs and virtues and try to use it against them as tool of manipulations, driving them into guilt just to get what you want. Am afraid even Christians do this to each other. Worse still, it is wrong to hide in a shell where you are a completely different person from what people see and know about you because of some imperfections and how the world will see you. I once told someone who looked down on me for a habit I was struggling with “If I am sincere enough to admit my weakness and bear it open before God and man, then I have exercised the greatest strength than the seemingly strongest Christian”

We hide behind these things when they are small, which is why when we climb to the top, it eventually opens up for the world to see and then it drags all that we stand for to the mud. God is not looking for perfect, had it all smooth folks, the dirtier, weaker, and more into that bad habit, the more of you He wants. So while everyone else just sticks their tongues out at you, you just be yourself and know that in His strength your weaknesses are made perfect. Even if you are a Christian who is caught up in something you are not proud of.

And for the rest of the world, the next time you see someone who has fallen into a ditch, you do yourself more favour by giving them a hand to get out than making fun of them and making silly remarks about how you always knew they were not who/what. The earlier we get to understand that the same blood runs through our veins and we all have equal rights to mistake, the better we will learn that the essence of our humanity is filling in the gaps for one another.

So please next time you see or hear that I slipped again, feel free to do whatever you want, blackmail, snicker, laugh, it doesn’t manner, one thing is certain though, I will keep moving. After all, I am a Christian (Christ-like, striving to be more like Him), and if He doesn’t cast a stone or judge me, who are you?

Love, Miss Young!