You done gone and said a bad word...

...and that word was "heaven".

There are a lot of things about Christianity that make people uncomfortable. These various objects of offense take many different shapes, ranging from the fact that Jesus actually claims ownership over our lives to the representation (not always in line with Truth) of God in the political arena. From foundational to, in my opinion, almost completely unimportant, respectively. There is something, however, which I feel inspires apprehension in both those who have a relationship with God and those who would not identify in this fashion, an aspect of the faith which I believe falls well within the realm of the former (substantially more important) classification of my entirely subjective scale. This would be heaven.

Bear with me if you will, as we embark on a journey of imagination together. That's right, this is Reading Rainbow, which makes me LeVar Burton, and you all tiny children. Think of the last time you hears a message in a church which has to do with heaven, or was even remotely related to the idea that we are promised eternal life if we follow after God. The only word I can come up with to describe how I feel during these times of teaching is anxious. Why, one might ask? I honestly don't know. Part of it is my constant fear that someone, somewhere, is going to be offended by what is being proclaimed. I think I am going to focus on that fear for right now, which is admittedly a tad dangerous I have just come to that conclusion this very instant.

In matters of heaven, really any part of Christianity which is excludes those who do not know God (as I have said before, though, we all have the opportunity to come to know God, I do not want to write about this without doing all that I can to make that clear), I often let my fear of other people's opinions rule me. There is a reality, however, which I feel must be understood by myself and anyone else who struggles with this. Christianity does indeed offend people. No matter how loving we try to be, no matter how deeply we know an individual, when sharing a faith which calls someone to turn away from the way in which they have lived and follow after God the reality we must face is someone will be put off by what is being presented to them. In making this statement, I make no effort to lessen the legitimacy of a person taking offense. I have experienced all manner of claims, some more reasonable than others, for why an individual is not comfortable with Christianity, or even the concept of a single infinitely loving God.

With this reality in mind, one who identifies as a Christian must ask how they are to live in light of the fact that their faith does indeed offend people from time to time. Blame can be cast in any manner of directions for why a person might be offended, from the individual sharing the faith, to the person listening, to the very God who made it so that there was anything to be shared at all. By sharing my faith, by acting in spite of the fact that I may temporarily offend someone, I indeed make myself a nice big target for that blame.

But does that really matter? We are not dealing with (often temporary) feelings of anger and discomfort here, we are dealing with the eternal fate of a soul. I think that someone who identifies as a Christ Follower should make every effort to educate themselves to other world views and recognize that those who support them (hopefully) consider their chosen conceptualization of the world to be extremely important to the way in which they live their lives. With this need to educate oneself in mind, I also believe that the greatest mistake a Christian can make is to let the fear that we will potentially offend someone paralyze us. In order to truly love people, we must push aside the fear that we do not know enough, that we will misrepresent God, that we ourselves will be defamed, whatever it is that holds us back. In no way is this easy, but it is infinitely necessary.

With His love and hopefully His grace,

Taylor