Belief.

Belief is always spoken of as a beautiful, precious thing. But it is only beautiful and precious when spoken of concerning oneself. When we talk about others' beliefs, we are more often than not harsh, critical, and skeptical. I'm sorry to say this, dear Christians, but we are often the most unloving people in the world today. Though our handbook is splattered, page after page, with commands and encouragements to love, we don't. We have an opinion about how others should live their lives based on our own convictions and interpretations of Scripture. When others' convictions don't match up with our own, we think they have fallen from grace or are heretics.

The sad thing is that I, though being told that I'm worried about because I've "fallen away from God", have experienced more of God's love through the fulfillment of his promises this past year than at any other time in my life. I have been challenged in my militant social beliefs and had to find a more personal connection with God after meeting only judgment and fakeness when trying to connect with other Christians. I have found that there are few precious people with whom I can share my thoughts about God and journey with him who will not judge me but pray for me and love me through it. It is sad that after all the times I have fought not to judge others or express my thoughts on their lives I have received it in return from so few.

I am sorely tempted to write a manifesto of my beliefs, the core of which have not changed and never will. But I answer to no man, only to the God who holds the sole power to condemn me but does not.