The Godly and Their Stories / Featuring Kailey

Sunday, June 30


I'm super excited to announce a new blog series I'm starting on Simple Grounds called 'The Godly and Their Stories." A couple times a month I'm inviting some godly people to share their stories of how they came to know Christ. From the get-go of this blog, I wanted to share Christ with the world. I wanted my words to be meaningful and pleasing to the Almighty. I know that my blog may not be as 'cool' or 'hip' as some others, but I know God wants to use every tool for His glory. With that comes stories, and not just my own stories but the stories of believers all over. I want others who have experienced the Lord's greatness to share with others. I pray this series is a source of inspiration for your own faith, and maybe it will answer any questions you have about God, faith, or Christianity. 

This series is not for the glory of 'blogging,' but for the glory of the King. This is to raise up the praises to our great and mighty God. 

The first story is of a beautiful gal named Kailey. Kailey is a wonderful girl I met here in Houston. Her walk with Christ has inspired me, and that was before I even read her testimony. 



Why I Didn't Give Up On the Church


"I'm better than you."

That's what I spent the greater part of my life believing. I grew up in church, but I didn't understand anything about God nor did I have a desire to understand him. I held tightly and blindly to a holier-than-thou faith, although I didn't understand what faith meant or in whom I had it. I had no idea what exactly I believed, and any belief I did have was shallow and fragile. The extent of my thoughts towards church were that I had to be quiet until it was over, and quite honestly, I struggled to even stay awake.

I wish someone had told me sooner.

It wasn't until after being a part of a youth ministry where the pastors got to the heart of things in both speaking and living that both my mind and heart were opened to what Jesus wanted to do in me, and I remember for the first time truly getting a taste of God when I was in 8th grade while I was alone watching a video of John Mark McMillan singing "How He Loves" live. I didn't wake up that day expecting to encounter God's overwhelming love for the first time, but since then I've known that God likes to surprise us that way.

I spent a long time after that being cynical about the church and her hypocrisies because for the first time I began to understand what she was supposed to be. I wanted God but wanted nothing to do with his people. I was disappointed with her inadequacies, and I was bitter about the horrible things that had been done "in the name of God." My heart was cold, and I felt so much unrest. I wanted to see the church live, but so much of her seemed dead. Pick up my cross? What does that mean, and where can I find mine?

Despite my disappointment, I knew that God is in the business of redeeming broken people and broken things, and I didn't want to miss out. I knew that wherever there were people tainting the cause of the church, there were also people ready to follow behind and do God's work in those places. I realized it was better to engage further in what God was doing to fix what was wrong than to give up altogether. By focusing on all of the wrongdoings that had been done in Christ's name, I failed to also recognize all of the wonderful ways God was working at the heart of the wreckage.

God shook me up. I realized how selfish I was being by rejecting the bride of Christ, his true love. I am a sinner and a hypocrite, and I need the grace of God just as much as anyone else. It was in the midst of my frustration that I questioned my intentions and acknowledged my own imperfections. Was I focused more on what the church was doing wrongly or on how God wanted to move mightily in the wrong? God quietly humbled me. The more I focused on the ways God wants to revive the church, the more I realized that what the church needs is not counterproductive criticism but constructive dialogue and restorative action. I wondered what would happen if we began to pray about the church's shortcomings instead of complain about them.

In that, I found the importance of loving people at all costs. The better I know Jesus, the more I realize how bad I am at loving others in a way that is "not cautious but extravagant" (Ephesians 5.2). We often have a lot to say about loving the "unlovable," and we like to embrace that…to an extent. God calls me to love my friends, my family, my neighbor, the poor, the rich, the terrorists, and churches who do things far differently than my own. It is not always easy to love people, but grace makes us gracious. It is powerful, transformative, and all-inclusive, and it's because of this grace that I am called to love my mother, the Westboro Baptist Church, and the Boston bomber. That is the difficult gospel of Christ.

God has changed the way I see people and has shifted my perspective on the church entirely. He turned my resentment towards her flaws into hope for her future, and I now see others as people to love rather than simply souls to save. If we can purpose daily to love God and love people more and better than we did yesterday, then we are moving in the right direction. Thank God for that.



You can find Kailey at
/
Kaileythompson.com
@kaileythompson

1 comments:

  1. I love this! Such sweet inspiration and a wonderful series idea.

    ReplyDelete

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