Missing the Point?

It's unfortunate how Christians who miss the point the most are the ones who whinge the loudest.

I'm not saying there aren't legitimate complaints out there in the world and in belief systems and religious organisations that need to be looked at seriously and addressed. Instead, I'm talking about the ones who complain about something, having totally missed the point of it.

Recently I wrote something about grace. There was a load of great feedback about it from people I know or who know my parents or are even vaguely acquainted with them. That was definitely a good thing. But then I was hit with a wall of whinge from some people who clearly didn't read what I'd written or just preferred to not pay attention to what was there, choosing to create their own version instead.

Maybe they should be given points for creativity or something, y'know, like, "Good effort, love your interpretive take on this. Very innovative. Gold star for you, young man!"

Realistically, though, it just came across as them saying they didn't want to extend grace to people they didn't think deserved it, the wrong message was being sent, or that grace wasn't something that Christians should be advertising because you never know who might accept it and you just wouldn't want that happening... Or just that we shouldn't agree with other Christian denominations.

Point taken as missed.

The thing is, I do understand the issues that some people would have had with it. Grace in itself is fantastic, but it's also very uncomfortable to think that God extends it to anyone willing to accept it - including people we personally think don't deserve it. Pretty confronting in that respect.

Oh well. Guess there are always moments of missing the point by everyone at some time or another in their life, so no-one's immune from it. But sometimes it'd just be nice if people read things properly, considered them and showed some rationality before flying off the handle.

Plus when Christians get too busy snarking at other Christians for whatever reason, the wheels kind of fall off the whole "Love one another as I have loved you" thing. And yes, I see the irony in writing about snarky Christian moments in such a manner...

But on a lighter note, I've got to say that there are many moments of fun with Christian stuff, one of which that's been making me laugh lately is the following, reportedly from an English hymnal:

St Joseph stood beside the cradle
and embraced the Holy Child
Then he knelt upon the sod...

Wrong in so many ways. But I'm pretty sure God's got a sense of humour too when it comes to odd word combinations and phrases designed to be praising Him.