When I was a kid, I sat at our kitchen table and watched my mother console a distraught aunt because she was having a family crisis and blamed it on breaking a chain letter. My mother told her she was being irrational. From that day forward, I always hated getting a chain letter. I gave no thought to what might happen if I broke the chain. In fact, I felt like I was saving any potential people I might have sent it to, the bother of dealing with it. In our age of technology we now get e-mail chain letters.
The kind that bother me the most are those of a religious nature. They play on your feelings by calling your love of Jesus into question if you do not forward them. One that I received asked why it is that people will forward a joke to people on their contact list but balk at sending one that professes their faith in God. For me the answer is easy. I only send jokes to people that I know will appreciate them. I do not ask them to pass it on.
Just as I believe that God loves the sinner but not the sin, I do not dislike the people who send these to me I just don’t like the action they have taken. I don’t mind when people request prayers from me. That tells me they recognize I am a person of faith. I will gladly add my petitions to theirs for any intention they may have. I appreciate when people recognize my need for prayer and offer pleas to God on my behalf. Relationships with our creator are personal. Don’t tell people how they have to express that love.
I recently read a post on Facebook that spells out what I believe claiming to be a Christian should mean. It means that we acknowledge our sinfulness and our need for a savior. Christian means “Christ like”. We will always fall short of that goal because of our human nature. Striving to attain that kind of behavior is what I believe we were put on this earth to do. I like the line in one of our church hymns that says, “They will know we are Christians by our love.”
Glenda Wagner
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