Day 347: Am I a Fruitcake?

I've personally never been in a situation where I could lead someone to Christ based on who I was and how I lived. It's always been my dream to do something like that, where my actions, words, and thoughts could make someone interested in learning about God. If there's one thing that's kept me from doing that, it's my flesh; my personal ambitions, desires, and selfish nature. How many times do we end up doing things based on our personal choice? I find it really easy to not do something God-centered, you know? I'll have an intention to spend some time with him, but then I could find an excuse to do something else. That bugs me a lot, yet I still find myself in that situation almost all the time. It makes me wonder to what level of a relationship with God I would need to be able to not only overcome that nature, but also to develop the God nature I know I have. I know deep down inside I have that potential (I've seen it many times before), but I don't want it to be an occasional outbreak. I want this God nature to be my default setting. This morning I watched Louie Giglio's message called Fruitcake and Ice Cream (if you haven't, I highly recommend checking that out.), and the Christian in this story was referred to by the main girl as a "fruitcake". Basically, this meant that she was unusual (at least that's how it translated to me, because I find fruitcake unusual..). After hearing parts of her journal entries that Louie was reading to the congregation, I couldn't help but understand why this girl called her Christian roommate a fruitcake. Sometimes, Christians can come off as unusual, socially awkward, and/or just plain rude, especially the ones with a judgmental attitude. It's people like this that give the rest of us a bad rep; if we could find it in ourselves to be more like Christ in the way we live, I believe that could change the way others see Christianity. Simply calling Christianity a religion to me is incorrect; I've heard it said many times before that "Jesus didn't come to give us religion; He came to show us love." What many people don't understand is that it's not mainly about living up to commandments, meeting a certain quota, or trying to convert as many people as possible by any means necessary; God connects with us through a relationship. He wants us to connect with Him on a more personal level, not one with statistics and regulations. I don't want to be a fruitcake. You know what I want to be? A cheesecake. Yup, I said it. If you know me, then you're probably not just laughing but also getting what I'm trying to say. I find cheesecake to be one of the best things created on this planet. In my humble opinion, I wouldn't mind believing that after God rested on the seventh day of Creation, He treated Himself to some cheesecake and kept it a secret from the people of the first generations for the sake of not causing them to worship a false (but delicious) idol. Just saying...
Let's not be fruitcakes, people; let's be legitimate people that have the potential to reach out to people by living. Good pastors are doing it. Faithful leaders of God's church are doing it. Bands like Anberlin, Relient K, Family Force 5, and Switchfoot are doing it. Ordinary peoples around the world with a God nature are doing it. So why can't we? I challenge you (and myself especially): let's live our lives with purpose, so that we can show others what real relationships with God can look like.

God bless,
Steven

P.S. I recently got a revelation that I'm probably going to come back to Australia fatter than the first time I went; this chocolate cake I'm chowing down may or may not play a big part of this revelation...