So awhile back, I stepped up to the griddle & made pancakes for the fam. For some reason, I only had gluten-free pancake mix, so that’s what I used. They looked like pancakes, they smelled like pancakes, they required the same ingredients as pancakes, they griddled like pancakes. BUT, they didn’t taste like pancakes. My kids didn’t like them. Ya know, I used to be like a gluten-free pancake. I looked like a Christian (wore modest attire & a cross necklace). I smelled like a Christian (always dousing myself in perfume & chewing gum after a night of partying). I had the same ingredients as a Christian (went to church, owned a couple bibles, attended a Christian college). BUT, get close enough and you’d discover I was gluten-free: everything was there…but something was missing. Maybe this is you too. Maybe this is someone close to you. How did I resolve this? Well, I went to the store & bought REAL pancake mix! Oh, and how did I resolve this in my life? When I was 23, after a disgusting night of partying, I woke up and had an epiphany: I didn’t want to LOOK like a Christian anymore, I wanted to BE one. It’s been hard work but I’ve had no regrets with the work its required. If you want the real pancake in you to stand up–ask the Master Chef to get involved–and you will. I hope this encourages someone today.
Great Word Heather !!
Great Word Heather !!
FUNK!!! Once again, I rejoice! Your transparency is always a wonderful blessing. However, I would be remiss if I didn’t say this. Transparency isn’t always pretty. I’m sure you can agree with that statement. I remember when I was going through something similar. For me, I became convicted of being a “billboard” for what a Christian should look like. Being a billboard was displaying everything at that time I was experiencing modern day Christians of the west were embracing towards lookinging like a Christian. The affliction attire with a huge Cross on the center of the t-shirt or hoodie. A cross necklace, always smiling and seemingly happy and having the response of “Good” to the question “How are you doing?” like a bullet in the chamber at the ready to be fired. I was living a lie and an exhaustive one at that!
It was greatly troubling to me to portray someone I wasn’t. I eventually stopped attending service and walk away from Church. When I returned months later not to receive the Word of God, but to spend time with a close friend, when sitting in service with them, a moment of sheer joy came over me. It wasn’t some euphoric joy, but rather painful breakthrough that brought about one of the most greatest moments of experiencing the joy of the Lord. As the dialogue of the pastor who was preaching faded into the background and the tears streamed down my face, I uttered this beautiful prayer and plead to the Lord, “Help me be the very best me I can be.”
Through conviction and great breakthrough, I stopped wearing affliction shirts, I got rid of my cross necklace, I didn’t smile or act happy all the time unless I was. And I started to respond to the question, “How are you doing?” With “Do you really want to know?” One day, when leaving service at Potential, I was mentioning my phoniness and these epic words of freedom, came out of me, “I resolve to be a real-Christian. Showing the good, the bad and the ugly while faithfully looking to the Lord and keeping Him first.” Since that day, I have been as it were, sober from the drunkenness and high of being someone I was not, to being the very best me I can be!
FUNK!!! Once again, I rejoice! Your transparency is always a wonderful blessing. However, I would be remiss if I didn’t say this. Transparency isn’t always pretty. I’m sure you can agree with that statement. I remember when I was going through something similar. For me, I became convicted of being a “billboard” for what a Christian should look like. Being a billboard was displaying everything at that time I was experiencing modern day Christians of the west were embracing towards lookinging like a Christian. The affliction attire with a huge Cross on the center of the t-shirt or hoodie. A cross necklace, always smiling and seemingly happy and having the response of “Good” to the question “How are you doing?” like a bullet in the chamber at the ready to be fired. I was living a lie and an exhaustive one at that!
It was greatly troubling to me to portray someone I wasn’t. I eventually stopped attending service and walk away from Church. When I returned months later not to receive the Word of God, but to spend time with a close friend, when sitting in service with them, a moment of sheer joy came over me. It wasn’t some euphoric joy, but rather painful breakthrough that brought about one of the most greatest moments of experiencing the joy of the Lord. As the dialogue of the pastor who was preaching faded into the background and the tears streamed down my face, I uttered this beautiful prayer and plead to the Lord, “Help me be the very best me I can be.”
Through conviction and great breakthrough, I stopped wearing affliction shirts, I got rid of my cross necklace, I didn’t smile or act happy all the time unless I was. And I started to respond to the question, “How are you doing?” With “Do you really want to know?” One day, when leaving service at Potential, I was mentioning my phoniness and these epic words of freedom, came out of me, “I resolve to be a real-Christian. Showing the good, the bad and the ugly while faithfully looking to the Lord and keeping Him first.” Since that day, I have been as it were, sober from the drunkenness and high of being someone I was not, to being the very best me I can be!