Religion Stuffed

Just recently I went to a wedding for a friend of mine. It was perfect for her and the decorations really made it special and magical just for the two of them. Anyways, while chatting with some of my friends in a circle I overheard a couple girls talking about their relatives that they considered 'very very Christian Christian'. They explained further to say that these relatives are so Christian that they're always trying to preach to their other relatives that have not found God yet.

That got me thinking about how so many have heard of the wonderful name of Jesus but half of them do not want to really get to know Him because of many different reasons. I don't know if it is people in general but I know that a lot of people don't like to have things stuffed down their throat, spiritually, especially if it has to do with religion. It can be scary and intimidating at the same time depending on the person you are with. I know that for myself I was scared to get to know Christ and really give Him control of my life because He seemed too magnanimous and big. Also I had plans and how I wanted my life to go so naturally it was hard for me to lay these down. The older I get the more I see my need for Him. For me, I would say that sometimes I can tend to stuff spiritual stuff down someone's throat because I want them to know the same kind of joy that I know because of the relationship I have with Christ. In consideration of this I want to step back and say that I don't want to stuff anything down my friend's throats. Yes I still want them to really get a good relationship with God but I don't want to be the cause of them drifting further away because I forced something else on them. Do you get what I mean? The point I want to make is that I would rather myself step back and let God reveal Himself to them in His timing and watch them struggle than choke them with my own version. Not that my version is not important because I believe that everyone has their own way of 'bragging' of God's goodness. I am not very good at the verbal stuff like other people I know.

I watched a Rob Bell video a while ago about how everything we do is spiritual and it fed me immensely. One of the things I remember him saying was that God is not meant to be a religion. That what He really wants is to become the best of friends with us. I highly doubt that God wants to force us into anything unless we are doing something terribly wrong or we are just missing all the obvious signs along the side of the road. He wants to be MY FRIEND. Thinking of God as wanting to really be my bestest friend and lover in the world, it makes me less reluctant to open up to Him. The Bible is full of scripture and stories of what God did so that He could be with us. It really is a beautiful love story, even though I myself have not sat down and intentionally read the whole Bible all the way through so I am a little at fault. Anyways, I just wanted to say that even though I am grateful beyond words can express for what God has done, and continues to do for me, I most of all want my friends to experience His goodness for themselves. Their lives will never be the same once they have been touched by Him because I know I am not the same since He touched me; and for that I am grateful.