Black, White and Shades of Grey

Tonight I want to believe that there is hope.  Hope for my future as a woman, a mom, an employee, and a friend.  

Why is it that Christians are so often the most black and white people?  I mean, such black and white thinking is so linear, so well, limited.  I'm not saying that God's word is unclear or isn't black and white, I'm just saying that often life is not black and white.  You can do all the right things and your spouse could still leave you.  Or you could blunder the marriage and your spouse could stay.  Mature Christian parents raise their child only to get a call from jail someday, wanting bail money.  

Mature Christians sometimes struggle with depression.  Many of us struggle the same ways that non-believers do.  Our minds know that God is caring for us, but our bodies and physiology make us depressed nonetheless.

Some of us fail miserably and are blessed with wonderful children and families.  What I know is that God's grace is this amazing blanket of cover that covers us all, the good, the bad and the imperfect.  His love is something the clingy can cling to and the hardened can cling to as well. 

I want to shout out from the tallest building to those who think in black and white.  To shout to them about God's love and to sing a song about God's grace and His ability to forgive, unconditionally for all the times we mess it up.  

I want to shout out to believers to love everyone, whether they are black, white or grey.  To be open to the fact that you might learn something from someone or some situation that is a shade of grey.  Be willing to think in a circle instead of your usual linear line of thought.  

I know enough to know that I've just barely scratched the surface of what is available to us as believers should we embrace God, really embrace Him and be willing to have Him take us wherever He leads.  Unbashedly throwing our wills and our lives over to the care of God as we know Him.  

So tonight I am a grey.  I realize some of you are blacks and some of you are whites.  Know that we are all God's creation...lets love those God has put in our lives radically and in a way that causes others to notice.  I want to love my co-workers to Christ.  I want to lead by example of the way I do business.  I want my work ethic to be representative of God.  

So I'm a grey.  256 shades of grey instead of one black and one white.  God's made me a creative, complicated individual who has a place in His world.