The Authentic Christian Mark

"The distinguishing mark of a Christian comes from Jesus' own command found in John 13:35. 'I am giving you a new commandment: Love each other. Just as I have loved you, you should love each other. Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are My disciples.' So why is love the ultimate identifying mark?"

We know this is very difficult, because we face it a million times a day. We see people doing bad things. WE are doing bad things, sinning against our Lord who so graciously saved us. We don't get along with certain people. Why should we "try to be the bigger person" when he's not trying? These are all excuses we use, that I use, that the world is guilty of. We live in a place where passivity is okay. We sit around and wait for others to make the first move, and then we justify it later, even though God's not justifying it. When did anything ever get accomplished in this world by us sitting around?! "Research has shown that most young people view Christians as judgmental and lacking in love. Whatever the truth of their perceptions, we know what our matching orders are. Jesus commanded, 'Love each other as I have loved you.'"

I know that we are guilty of this. People have been hurt by the church. People have been hurt by each other. If you go up to someone and say, "Can I have a few minutes to share my testimony of Christ's love with you?" they may give you a minute, but they may not. There are always two sides on a coin. In a day surrounded by 1,440 minutes, we cannot give one another a single of them? How tragic? We've seen firsthand here what Jesus can do in people's lives. He has saved us! Whether we were considering "this or that" or "not to do this or that"; we were ALL hanging off the edge of that cliff called death. We were hanging from the edge by a fingernail, and God. saved. each. and. every. one. of. us. We are to love; love yourself, love one another.

You've heard it said that you can't open yourself up to love until you love yourself. I'm certainly not the poster girl for "Love Yourself," since I have not loved myself a majority of my own life. I can struggle each minute of every day with hatred-- hating what God gave me and wishing I were someone else or looked like someone else or was as thin as this woman.............but then I'm not able to love someone else. Every day that I wake up, look in the mirror, and hate what I see, I lose someone who could receive God's love. This is now the perspective I have to see life from. I have to pray for this each day, or it can seem impossible to see it through. I've seen and written about so many issues concerning loneliness, love of self, and confidence lately. I am going to be teaching a women's course on it! But thankfully I don't have to be an expert in it.

I am BLESSED that the Lord is giving me-- someone so broken and lost for wisdom-- the chance to provide wisdom from what I have experienced. It's not glamorous, but who among us has lived so glamorously in the manner I'm talking about? I always tell myself, "Stop caring about the world that way. Stop seeing yourself the way the world sees you-- not good enough, not pretty enough, not thin enough, not working hard enough because you've only put in 52 hours this week instead of 70. The list goes on and on and on. And on. But I cannot let it control who I am in Christ. I haven't pushed through that swamp of muck just to push through another one. I have pushed through it to stand where I am now; to help others get from point A to point B. This is my own mark.