What Love Can Do

This last week in the news, I saw an article about a group demanding "Cracker Barrel" change it's name. The reason was because it was a "white" guy leaning up against a beer barrel and it supposedly made all American men seem like drunks. How they derived that meaning from a guy who actually looks brown and orange to me, I don't know! My first reaction was amusement and then I had a bit of frustration. Why is it that it seems everyone is getting offended over literally everything? It's everything. I'll make a list of just a few of the ones I can think of right now.

1. The Kardashians
2. The Confederate Flag (isn't that just a part of history?)
3. Gays, Lesbians, Transexuals, Bisexuals, Straights
4. The Duggars
5. Yoga pants
6. Vaccinations/No vaccinations
7. Mexican Illegals
8. Nursing in public/Covering up
9. How police deal with violence
10. Everything else inbetween

I'm pretty sure there are hundreds more, especially in the Christian world. This day and age, it seems Christians are so divided in beliefs, and how they interpret the Bible. I will be the first to say I am not sure of what all I believe in. I have been confused on who God is and what He means with certain things in the Bible. I am not perfect and I do not claim to be perfect or have it all together when it comes to this "being a Christian" thing. In fact, as many know, I refuse to even say I am a Christian. I just prefer to say I love Jesus and I try to do my best to follow him. I fail. I fail all the time.

I believe God wants diversity in His people. He wants the outgoing. He wants the shy. He wants the bold and He wants the more conservative. He wants people who want to go to the nations and wants people who have a heart to stay at home and minister to their neighborhood. He wants people who enjoy love to sing and those who love to preach. He wants the poor. He wants the rich. He wants every nationality; white, black, red, yellow....or even better way to say it, English, Irish, Russian, Jew, German and Italians too. (Sing that to "Jesus loves the little children, all the children of the world....red and yellow, black and white..." Get it? :)   ). And please don't get offended if your nationality wasn't mentioned. I mean every single nationality in the entire world...God wants each of them.

But even more than He wants all of the diversity, He wants unity. He wants unity of heart, soul and mind. He wants Love to be the binding force that brings us together. He wants the rich to love the poor. He wants the straights to love the gays. He wants the whites to love the blacks. He wants the vaccinators to love the non-vaccinaters. ("Vaccinators" is probably not a real word...just go with it! lol). Etc, etc, etc.

As someone who has been at the end of a lot of hate and dissension dished out by more than one church, I can speak from experience that being told that I was going to hell because I was leaving a certain church, or being kicked out of a ladies group because it was "unhealthy" for me, was full of hate and hurt for me. I know many, many, many people who have been hurt by the church. It is sad how many have turned away from even trying to love God, or know Him because the avenues He has placed in the world to show His love, instead are going around creating division and confusion. I would love to see a world of Christians reaching out to and loving on every single type of person in the world. I would love to see Love prevailing, because Jesus did say that the greatest thing we could do was love. He wasn't limiting that to just the perfect, Pinterest styled people. He wants us to love everyone. Let's let Love prevail and take over the world! Let's see what Love can do!

PS. Here is a picture of Cracker Barrel's logo...what do you think? Does it depict that all American men are drunk? LOL.