Another 10 Years Later

So I've realized I'm awful at keeping up with this blog. Yeah. Pretty much! Lo siento!

The Christmas break has been wonderful! I have had such a good time! And I still have 2 weeks left.

The past 5 days, I went to this awesome conference with CRU. It was amazing. I learned so much about myself, God, and sin. So as you know, my aunt has now come out as lesbian and is getting married to my former PE teacher. I have really been struggling with how to respond to this. It's hard because in the church, you don't talk about homosexuality unless you are talking about how it's bad and you'll go to Hell if you do it, and it's one of those "bad" sins that is condemning and God-forbid any Christian have same-sex orientation struggles. Because obviously, if you're a Christian you don't struggle with temptation and sin, right? WRONG. I don't know about you, but I still struggle with a ton of sin and temptation in my life. Just because I don't wear it on the outside as much as my aunt doesn't mean that it isn't as bad as hers. Just because God hasn't given that to me to struggle with, doesn't mean that I'm not as broken as the next gay person, or that I need God's grace any less.

I mean, how would I feel if someone came up to me and said "You know Abby, you're a sinner because you are a lustful person and you're going to Hell." Or "Abby, you're going to Hell because you gossip and are careless with your words." Yeah I'd be pretty upset because I know that those are condemning things. The difference between me and someone who is without Jesus living in their sin is the fact that they are without Jesus. I still sometimes live in my sin and I still have problems with temptation and anger even though I have given my life to Jesus.

So what's the best option? Talk to them about how they need to clean up their life or else they are going to Hell? No. Can you clean up your life without the power and grace of Jesus Christ? No. You can't. The truth is we all need Jesus and the only thing that someone who is without Jesus needs is Jesus. Not a cleaner life. Because they would go to Hell without Jesus no matter what their life looks like. And change of the heart can only happen when someone knows Jesus. All that I can do for people who struggle with any sin is be there for them and love on them and listen to them and tell them that Jesus loves them and accepts them for what they are and even what they do.

Because no one is good enough without Christ.

I have been so convicted with so many things this week and this was just one of the main ones. I just want to extend this to anyone: I will listen to you in your struggle and it's not bad to struggle. It doesn't make you not good enough. It only means that we should be more thankful for Jesus because he loves us so much anyway. So this is a 2-way street. We can talk about sin and temptation because once it's spoken, it feels much better than when it's stifled in the dark recesses of our heart.

Sorry about the post being so deep but I felt especially convicted this morning about this particular subject and I feel like I can tell you both anything.

~Abby~