No, not that kind of “out”. I still have a healthy appreciation for the male species. 😉

I am referring to a relationship, however, and that is with Christ

Closeted Christian

Up until recently, I’ve always kept a lowkey position about my faith. Not because of shame or embarrassment, but rather out of humility. Today there are so many fake Christians, touting superiority and judgment, failing to see how their behavior is not only abhorrent but a true disservice to what it actually means to follow Christ. For me personally, I always tried to let my actions speak for my faith. Helping those in need, being a light, while trying to live according to how Jesus lived.

Seeing the light

Last year, I went on an epic journey that not only confirmed my belief in God, led me on some epic adventures. I swear my life was like some adventure movie, it was pretty crazy. I was so hooked, I was giving away my stuff to the homeless people in my neighborhood, feeding people whenever I could, it was amazing.

Enduring hardship

One of the biggest things I’ve learned is that the more you begin to follow God, the more you’ll face different types of opposition. At first, I didn’t think anything of it as last year things were practically falling out of the sky. This year, however, has easily been the toughest year since 2008. I literally experienced loss at every level. Work and relationships were obliterated in the process out of the blue. This wasn’t like I dropped the ball in being accountable, quite the opposite. In fact, this year, I poured more love and hard work into every aspect of my life and like rain in a blistering dry desert, all of my resources evaporated.

I’ll admit, I got a little frustrated. At one point, I was asking God, “What gives?”. I was spending so much time helping others and turning the other cheek, and I was still getting drop-kicked in the face. Eventually, I decided to stop feeling sorry for myself and decided to really closely follow the Bible, which funnily enough has detailed accounts of every single experience I’ve gone through. Even now as I’m still going through the wilderness– though I feel as that is coming to an end– I can’t help but feel overjoyed with gratitude. In the midst of my struggles, I’ve received mercy and kindness from the unlikeliest of people, and through it all, I’ve wanted for nothing.

Being accountable

So back to the outted part. I’ve been editing my dad’s blog over a year now. It’s a Christian blog that gives anecdotes of biblical wisdom with a chapter of scripture at the bottom. We publish each day. This past week as he’s been in Switzerland, the responsibility of creating content has fallen on my shoulders. At first, I was just going to ghostwrite as I didn’t want to put my name out there. Again, not out of shame, but honestly because I feel like I’m just a snot-nosed young person. What kind of wisdom do I have? Still, I felt compelled to put up something and as I began to write, I realized that I did have something to say. Plus since I was publishing under his platform, it wasn’t like anyone I knew would see it. Man, was I wrong.

Funnily enough, I configured my dad’s blog to share on his Facebook page. Unbeknownst to me, since I was writing under my account, the posts were being shared on my page too! Upon learning this, I was horrified. I was so scared of what my peers would think. I didn’t want anyone to mistake the work for arrogance or that I felt my life was superior in any way. I also didn’t want the responsibility of having to step my lifestyle game up. More to the point, I didn’t want people to judge me when I fall short, which will happen because I’m human.

In fact, my life is a bit of a whirlwind right now, but I say that without shame. But then I realized, that as a person who follows Christ I can express my faith without pretending to claim perfection. In fact, it’s quite the opposite. My experiences have exposed my flaws and I’m working on being the best that I can be. I’ll always be a work in progress, but I don’t need to hide that.

Stepping out in faith

I won’t always be writing on my dad’s blog, but I’ve decided that I want to start reblogging his posts here for anyone who may care to read them. May they encourage you in your journeys! Happy Thursday, everyone! 🙂