kind of sad that a pastor would have to say that to his friends, mainly you would think Christians, maybe even from his church... one lady commented that in her experience the church was not a safe place to not be okay...
as someone who likes history, my mind always tries to figure out what happened, in regards to the church, Jesus by His dealings with sinners made it pretty clear that He was very understanding and full of mercy and grace.. His death was the ultimate proof that this is what He was all about... grace, open arms for us, the sinners, and that we are justified through what He did, we are people stuck in this world, not ok, yet loved, accepted by Him...so what happened?
I think people happened... people, well meaning people for sure, needed to find some way to control what was going on... people like you and me, believers, struggling to trust and just take what His word says at face value and stick to it... instead people came up, and still do today, with rules and regulations and created an environment where it was again (like in Jesus' times, the Pharisees) not ok to be not ok....
man made rules, made up to control what people were doing.... not trusting God, really putting Him in a box... making Him very small....
because, being not ok is ok, not because it is okay to sin, but because He loves us and is fully aware how broken we are, because of what He did we are forgiven, His spirit in us will never give up on transforming us and making us more and more like Him....
trusting Him for what He has promised and relying on His strength to be transformed... not out of our own strength... if we do that, we do not have to feel that we need to control whats happening around us, we will not judge others and we will be free from condemnation, even if others (even in the church) are judging us...
there is power in transparency, being authentic and admitting not to be ok allows others to see how God is working in our lives... so please, of all places, be ok to not be ok in your church...... admitting things are not okay is difficult, pride has to be put aside... good lesson I think... fear of condemnation...if we know who we are in Christ that shouldn't bother us... rather we can enjoy the acceptance of the genuine body of Christ... what blessing and freedom in being real... so let's be real, not just today, but always!
