Lately, I’ve been very frustrated with labels. I cringe when I hear the word “Christian” even though it’s a label I bear. Perhaps it’s what the label has come to represent, or what the label is assumed to evidence. I find, more often than not, the label to be lacking. So often, I encounter people who bear the label, whose only identity is that “Jesus died for my sins… I believe he did… thus, I’m a Christian”.

I find that to be incredibly simplistic and naive. Correct me if I’m wrong (and I very well could be), but doesn’t Christ’s death and resurrection mean more than just our sins are washed away? Isn’t there a transformation that takes place once we are forgiven? What happens after that initial “belief”? Don’t get me wrong, I am certain that part of being a Christian is belief if Christ’s death and resurrection. My beef is that, often, that is where people stop. They fail to acknowledge the transformation that must take place in our own lives. That this belief we hold, that if Christ did come and die for our sins, that this belief MUST change who we fundamentally are.

And too often, I run into fellow brothers and sisters in Christ who are no different today than they were the day they professed faith in Christ. Granted, I’m perfectly aware of the verse that urges us to remove the plank from our own eye before addressing the speck in our brothers. But my frustration begins when I begin that journey of transformation… of questioning who I am in light of the Resurrection, of questioning who God is, and what becoming a follower of Christ means. Too often, I’m perceived to be “liberal” or a “doubter”, or worse than those labels, I’m ignored entirely.

I long to be a part of a community of fellow seekers, doubters, skeptics, questioners, etc. who are searching for the meaning behind this label, and what it truly means to be a follower of The Way. Otherwise, my questions fall on deaf ears of those unwilling to search themselves deeper, unwilling to see the depths of the mystery of God, and paralyzed by the belief that further change is unnecessary.
Lord, help me understand. Help me remove this plank from my eye, help me to see the depths of your glory and mystery, and to be satisfied in the tension of not having all of my answers.