A Prayer for the Weary

Many days, I get on Facebook and it seems that the hearts and minds of Christians are among the harshest, hardest, and cruelest.

Then I read an article or post and I am reminded how Christians can be filled with compassion, hope, and beauty.

And I think: I’ve heard that churches should be like hospitals for the spiritually broken, but so often they feel like shrines for the supposedly whole.

I’ve heard that the gospel is for the weary, the sinner, the broken-hearted, the seeker, the other, the hopeful, the hopeless.

So often, it feels like it is for the same, the perfect, the know-er, the comfortable, the getting it “right,” the judge.

I believe Christians should focus less on Christ throwing out the money changers and more on Him welcoming in the poor in spirit.

Our hearts should be so filled with the Living Water, that it overflows as charity, service, love, kindness, and compassion.

We should worry less about how someone dresses, whether they use and a credit card or ebt card, and if they are following every rule.

Our churches should look like community centers; serving, welcoming in, healing.

Our flock should have no boundaries, no “them,” only “us.”

Let’s “love the sinner and not the sin” less and just love more.

Let’s excommunicate the “sinful” less and excommunicate rigidity, fear, tradition, and culture more.

Let us be so filled by the mercy and love of Christ that when truth leaves our lips, even hard truths, they only heal, never wound. This is my prayer.