Otherness
image created by author with Ai
Otherness
How is our otherness defined in terms of outward appearances and beliefs? What does it mean to live as Christ lived? How do we avoid rebuilding that which Christ came to tear down? How do we escape from the snare of people pleasing and taking part in the community-based mass delusion of modern American Christianity?
I have seen and experienced intimately what it is like to be raised by a so-called Christian family. What I experienced at their hands goes beyond brutality and into sadistic self-righteous gratification. God was used as a tool to terrify; hell became a near certainty if one did not conform to what others expected. I was lonelier in a church than when I was alone with God. Love was the exception in those broken-down dilapidated husks of vainglory and not the norm. Falsehood flourished under an open banner of shared shame; confirmation became condemnation to assuage egos of elders and preachers alike.
After leaving because of church leaderships condemnation of my Transgender identity I finally experienced true connection with God. Through daily prayer, the reading of the word, meditating, always praising, fasting, and listening more than I speak, I became rooted and grounded in the true vine, Yeshua HaMashiach. I began to change, not because of my effort or own inherent godliness, but because He was changing me divinely through the Holy Spirit. When I gave my free will to choose Him, through trial, temptation, hardship, and perseverance, every time it forged me stronger and pulled me closer.
Still, I stand condemned by those who should love unconditionally and judged by a measure they could not stand in their lives. What I learned was that it is easy to point a finger, preferable even if it deflects attention away from our own transgressions. Even the word warns of this when it tells us to remove the plank from our own eye before we attempt to remove the speck from our brothers or sisters. God abhors an unjust measure and considers it an abomination. How can we defend that which we have become when it is scriptural unsound?
Godliness is not a means of control. Godliness is not a tool of condemnation. Godliness is sincerity of heart reflected for God’s pleasure alone and rewards coming from Him and of Him. Godliness is not outward transformation based on our effort, it is internal, inspired by the Holy Spirit. Godliness is silent where this worlds version of it is loud, it is reflected by those who show love secretly for no praise but Gods because our heart desires what He desires. Godliness and Christ likeness is unstoppable for those who belong to Him.
Our otherness, us being in the world but not of the world, is defined not by Sunday worship but by a life lived in love and reverence. Our otherness is shown by our fruits, and you will rarely see our actions for we do not let the right hand know what the left is doing. Our otherness is shown in choosing to forgive when we are wronged, even if unasked. Our otherness is in opposition to modern American Christianity.
I close with this.
What does your walk say about you? To whom do you do your acts of charity? What are you doing when only God is watching?
They will know us by our Love or lack.
This piece is part of my book The Seven Thunders.
Available now on Amazon — and free with Kindle Unlimited.