Where There’s Blayze

As time goes on, I find myself constantly challenging my perspective on certain situations, people and even on just life itself. Too easily do I close my perspective to fit with the emotions I am feeling at that moment and ignore much of the other things that surround me. Since becoming a Christian, I strive to try to see things from Gods perspective rather than my own and see why they are so different. The difficulty now is that the more I look to what I perceive/assume Gods perspective to be, the more I feel uneasy and unsatisfied with everything I am doing. Is this simply the nature of seeing things from Gods angle, a sign that I am not doing enough, or rather that you can take it all just a bit far?

The first way this has greatly influenced me is with the subject of offence. Every time I try and see things through Gods eyes I struggle to understand how any Christian has the right to be offended. Naturally, this is a bold statement, but one that I feel is greatly justified. As Christians we believe that God has forgiven us for all our sins, in fact he sent his son down to die on the cross so that we might not be shackled by the oppressing power of sin, (John 3:16) and yet we still subconsciously seem to feel that this message is only for certain ‘good’ people. We still feel we have the right to turn away from someone, or become angry with someone and gossip about them. I work with the young people in Marlborough and it is a well known fact that most of them swear. Now this does not mean they are bad people and it certainly does not mean they should be avoided. Despite this, I seem to constantly see people looking down their noses at such a group and telling me they are a bad bunch. From Gods perspective they are amazing people, and if you take the time to get to know them you will most likely come to the same conclusion. However, we have changed how we see God in a missional context. It seems that we look at God as though he were an over protective parent trying to shield our delicate ears from such foul language. That if someone was to swear at us, God would cover our ears and say, ‘oh don’t listen to them, they don’t deserve your time.’ People have taken offence to the young people’s language and subsequently walk away and don’t talk about their faith to them, or anything for that matter. We are not perfect; we have been forgiven for a great deal. If we have been forgiven of all of our sins and God still listens to us, then how can we justify walking away from difficult characters because of something they have said. If God has forgiven us then what right, do we have to be offended at others? We feel like we deserve better than having to talk to these difficult people. Todd White said it best when he said, ‘if you want what you deserve go to Hell.’ We all fall short of Gods glory. It makes no sense to me how we can have the right to be offended. It is only when we start to consider things from Gods perspective that we see how strange it all sounds. Imagine it, if a young teen walks into your Church and accidentally swears, what is the image that comes to mind? Is it someone from the Church coming up to talk to them and engage with them, or is it someone going and telling them off and having a go at them.  I imagine that for most people it is the image of someone telling them off. It does not seem biblical to me, if we look at Matthew 18:6, it says that, ‘if anyone causes one of these little ones–those who believe in me–to stumble, it would be better for them to have a large millstone hung around their neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea.’ Now Jesus is saying this in the context of stopping them from coming to him, causing them to stumble on their spiritual journey. Now people avoiding the youth for their language or brash behaviour is giving the Church and its congregation a bad image that is only pushing them away from God. If we can say that in the context of the youth then it must also be true for everyone. We do not need to start swearing so that they feel comfortable but we can still make them feel welcomed. God forgives us on a daily basis and does not avoid us or treat us differently because of when we go wrong, so what right do we have to be offended with anyone? Don’t get me wrong, if someone comes into a Church and every other word is a swear word then it is worth asking that person if they would try and not swear while they were in the building, but it must be done in a way that is welcoming to them and not simply people judging them for their language. I used to become offended and angry with people all the time and that was an issue. Most of the time I would argue that offence breeds anger. If someone offends me, I become annoyed or upset at that individual and therefore it may change how I interact with that person, if at all. I get asked a lot of great questions by the young people I work with and a lot of that is because they know they cannot offend me. They know that they can be themselves when they talk to me. If I taking offence at everything they said or did, then I am not sure if it would be the same dynamic.

When we think about offence we must look at what causes us to be offended. Is it because the person we are in contact with is wishing for us to become offended? Most the time people don’t wish to offend others, it just happens. Therefore, in my mind, a way to avoid this is by trying to see things from the other person’s perspective. We must remember that God can see both perspectives and is the only one who can truly know if someone is sorry, angry or wishing to cause offence to someone. So as Christians I cannot help but feel that we should always be seeking to see intention rather than action. This is something I am finding challenging to say the least. It seems every week I am having a meeting with my Vicar or line manager about how they do not trust that I can do something, or how they would have expected more from me. Despite the fact that I am giving everything I am to my job and feel that the fruits of my labour should be proof that I can do it. I need to remind myself that I cannot allow myself to become offended by them and angry with them, because their intentions are very honourable. They are only coming down on me so hard because they want the best for the young people of the area. They do not wish to upset or offend me but rather encourage me. So I have a choice, I can either become offended by what they say and resent them for it, or I can see their comments for what they were intended to be and what they are, which is encouraging me to do right by the youth of Marlborough. I feel this is something that everyone should look at implementing into their lives, to ask themselves what is the intention behind someone’s action. It seems to me a lot of arguments and difficulties would be avoided if more people could just do that a bit more often.

Then it gets to the other side of trying to see things from Gods perspective. Sometimes by doing this, all that happens is that I feel useless and as though I am not doing all that I can or should be doing. I get this feeling a lot while working in the Church. The Church is no different to many other places in the regard that its workers have to go through certain politics to get things done. This is not a bad thing, in many respects it offers to keep the Church staff to some sort of accountability, despite this it is these politics that make me question if what I am doing is enough or even right. My role is to make Christ known to the young people of the local community. That is quite a missional objective in many respects and one that includes doing a fair bit of discipleship. That objective is very Biblical, Jesus told his disciples to do this in Matthew 28:19 when he said, ‘Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.’ So that is what I strive to do, it has to be said that this is not an easy thing to do. Postmodernism and the common western worldview has made it very difficult to show the young people the wonders of God and the Bible. Nevertheless, I go out and aim to do this every day. I go into schools to help at clubs, lead assemblies, take lessons and just be a witness to them. I run a drop in where secondary school teens can come and hang out and talk to me about any questions they may have. I run groups devoted to helping people deepen their faith. Nevertheless, for every action, there is a committee. For everything I do, there are meetings where I need to defend how I spend my time and what I am doing. There is paperwork that needs to be filled out to ensure the safety of the Church. Once again this is not a bad thing, but when you look at your week and see how much of it is meetings, it is somewhat difficult to believe that you are doing what Jesus sent his disciples out to do. In John 14:12 Jesus says, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father.’ Jesus made this amazing statement to his disciples. Jesus challenged local authority, made the blind see, the deaf hear, the lame walk and introduce many to God, he even brought people back from the dead. Yet I am sat in a staff meeting talking about what liturgy would be best appropriate for the upcoming Sunday service. I am not trying to say that the Church is wrong in its approach or that I have a better idea, but when I try and see my ministry in comparison to what I imagine Gods expectation of ministry should be, I question whether I am doing enough.

The more I think about these things the closer I get to understanding how I should live as a Christian, which is never a bad thing. Since I no longer feel like I have the right to be offended by others I find myself far more excepting of people, I feel like I try and see the best in their intentions rather than judging them for their actions. It pushes me to go outside my comfort zone and talk to those who make me feel uneasy around, or those whose lives I do not condone. I have spoken about how I do not feel like I am doing enough in Gods perspective. The hardest thing for me to do is to remind myself that God has me where he wants me and that as long as my ministry is rooted in Him, then from his perspective I am doing fine. What I have written may not translate to everyone, people may not even agree with it, but these thoughts have helped me grow in these last few months and I hope they maybe help you.

God bless.