Coffee and Bananas.

Today in Sunday School we were talking about how Christians have such a bad rap and why.  Then we started talking about the people who are extremely Christ-like, but aren't Christians.  For example, Mahatma Gandhi.  Then it got me thinking, would someone like that, who shows compassion and wisdom and love be sent to hell?  Someone who fought for equality and freedom of religion.  Someone who built his life off of nonviolence and truth.  Some things I don't understand.

We then talked about how everyone has a connection to God, whether they realize it or not, and whether they are Christian or not.  The Spirit of God hovers over the earth, like it has done since Creation, therefore, everyone has encounters with the Spirit.  And human beings are made in the image of God, whether those characteristics are the ones being brought out the majority of the time or not.  So, once again Im troubled by the idea that people like Gandhi would be sentenced to an eternity in hell.  I find that hard to fathom.  Of course, Gandhi wasn't perfect, but I think he actually got what it should all be about.  What the Christian faith is based on, and he wasn't even a Christian.  Things like that baffle me, and Im at a loss.  

His quote, "I like your Christ, but I don't like your Christians, they are so unlike your Christ" makes me wonder if Christians turn people away from God.  In fact, I know Christians turn people away from God.  So that leaves me to wonder, if people were more like Gandhi, or more like Mother Teresa, a God-fearing woman, how different would our city, our state, our nation, our world look?  How many unsaved people would be longing and desiring a relationship with God because of how others live?

Crazy to think about.

Of course, we're all human, and humans aren't perfect, and we all sin.  So that's unlikely to happen.  However, if Mother Teresa can serve and love as extravagantly as she did, and Gandhi can show wisdom and acceptance as much as he did, then why can't we?  If Jesus can walk the streets and eat with the "undesirables" and make friends with the hopeless, why can't we?

Because we're scared...but that's a whole other entry.