"If you feel that God doesn't like you and thinks you're not good enough for him, then somewhere along the way someone caused you to think that. The beautiful news is, this is not how God sees you or thinks about you. God knows you need help and hope, that you have sin that needs to be forgiven. But he also knows you have a hugs capacity for love, to understand his love for you.
He longs to show you an untainted picture of what his love looks like. That you would see this man Jesus for who he really is; a person who was marginalized by the religous community - but only because of his geuine love"
(Jesus in the Margins - Rick McKinley pg 56)I became a Christian in Junior High. Yeah, sometimes I can't imagine why.
I think it was mostly because I was scared at the time. I was afraid that God was basically going to send me to hell and soon if I didn't jump on board. I also had this thought that being baptized would help me break the "chain of sin" in my life. Well, it did that, I guess.
For some reason I never understood that Jesus loved me, and that he was really real, I knew he was something, I believe he had some special power that I didn't understand. I guess I just had a hard time seeing him as much more than this distant force that said He loved me, but never showed up to prove it.
It took me years to begin to see Jesus the way he is described here as a someone/ a person/ a Lord who honestly cares for me. He doesn't make me a number or a thing, but it is in Him I have found Reality, Truth.
As I read this book, "Jesus in the Margins", I totally identified with Rick McKinley, his story of living in the margins and finding faith is powerful to me. I think a lot of us live or have lived in the margins. Actually, sometimes I think there is great power in knowing what the margins are like. Almost as if living in the margins is the greatest place to live, because like Jesus, there you find those who "are like sheep without a shepherd."
God is doing something in our world, and I believe what He is doing is turning the margins in to the center of the page. Breaking the chains of "normalcy" and unleashing the upside down kingdom. I am thankful for it, I just want to be along for the ride.
