God has been working in my heart and mind this past year, showing me that I have had many legalistic and judgmental attitudes in my past. In showing me my brokenness, God is tearing me away from this mentality, and giving me a compassion and empathy for others.
I recently bought a book called Messy Spirituality by Michael Yaconelli. This is one excerpt called Desperateness.
"Christianity is not for people who think religion is a pleasant distraction, a nice alternative, or a positive influence. Messy spirituality is a good term for the place where desperation meets Jesus. More often than not, in Jesus' day, desperate people who tried to get to Jesus were surrounded by religious people who either ignored or rejected those who were seeking to have their hunger for God filled. Sadly, not much has changed over the years.
Desperate people don't do well in churches. They don't fit, and they don't cooperate in the furthering of their starvation. "Church people" often label "desperate people' as strange and unbalanced. But when desperate people get a taste of God, they can't stay away from him, no matter what everyone around them thinks.
Desperate is a strong word. That's why I like it. People who are desperate are rude, frantic and reckless. Desperate people are explosive, focused, and uncompromising in their desire to get what they want. Someone who is desperate will crash through the veil of niceness. The New Testament is filled with desperate people--people who barged into private dinners, screamed at Jesus until they had his attention, or destroyed the roof of someone's house to get to him. People who are desperate for spirituality very seldom worry about the mess they make on their way to be with Jesus."
I know a few "desperate people" and they are people I admire in their desire to be near Jesus and to be like Him. More and more, they are the type of people I want to associate with.
In fact, I want others to see me as 'desperate'.