24 Ways I See Things Differently Now

1. Grace really is "amazing"...the song had it right all along. It's taken me a long time but I finally get it. You can tell those that have truly experienced it themselves - the petty, the trivial...they just don't matter because grace is bigger than that.
2. I can spy the church culture in a person from a mile away.
3. I no longer believe that the contemporary conservative white suburban church culture is the ONLY way.
4. People different from me are not wrong; they're just different...and there's beauty in that.
5. Grace is actually a 4-letter word to some people. 
6. I am doing a million things the "wrong" way yet, I feel closer to God and finally understand what the bible means when it talks about having freedom in following him. 
7. I also feel like for the first time in my life, I'm actually learning how to love as Christ intended. 
8. Since not being so closely involved with the church, I spend less time watching TV, judging people, worrying about materialistic things and feeling like I don't measure up.
9. Since not being so closely involved with the church, I spend more time thinking intentionally about how I treat people, being a better, calmer mom, enjoying people rather than judging them, spending time with those closest to me, feeling better about myself and learning & thinking critically about how God loves and wants me to love.
10. Being around someone that can easily quote scripture (and does so in a nearly be-littling way) doesn't make me feel like less of a Christian anymore; now I'll just admit that it annoys me. 
11. Thoughts only in black & white leave out sooooooo many colors. Too many people ONLY think this way and they also think their black & white thoughts are rules.
12. God is a creative god and we diminish that every time we refuse to believe that he may do something outside of those "rules" we so adamantly believe in (nevermind argue about).
13. Not only are things not always what they seem to be; I am cementing my belief that they are almost NEVER what they seem to be. 
14. Just because I don't keep up with [insert local Christian station here] doesn't make me a bad person. It makes me someone who can appreciate good music. I can hear God in most any music.
15. And for that matter, just because I don't keep up with [insert latest Christian fad here] doesn't make me a bad person either. Jesus has been reaching people well before we had The Purpose Driven Life, WWJD, The Prayer of Jabez...I can't tell you what the latest thing is b/c I've been working hard to distance myself from it. It's just a marketing technique and we Christians are the biggest suckers around. What's worse is we make each other feel badly when we hear they're not on board.
16. I don't know that I believe in a big church anymore. I'm not sure...jury's still out on that one.
17. When faced with "challenging" relationships, (i.e., being friends w/someone who makes "questionable" life choices according to the conservative church), I no longer feel that being friends with them means that their choices must always be up for debate. Nor do I wonder what my role should be "as a Christian" in the friendship any more. If we have been fortunate enough to form a friendship, then I only want to be concerned with that.
18. Feeding off of the previous one, I don't believe in the "targeting" methods of current evangelism. This whole notion of taking basic sales techniques and applying it to sharing about God is nuts. In sales, what happens when the economy takes a dump?!? That's right - your sales plummet. Those techniques only work when your customers have nothing to lose. Sales skyrocket when people have a need though and you've got other people who've found something to meet that need that they truly believe in. Hmmm...could it be that simple with telling people about God?
19. I cringe at the church's ability to blend with suburbia. A suburban mindset is ruining America and ruining our churches.
20. I remember in high school not feeling like I fit in with any one clique. I somewhat felt part of each and every one of them but there weren't any that I truly said, "THIS is me." Knowing how very much I loved God, in my 20's I tried desperately to find that home in the church. All I've decided is that I still in many ways feel just like I did in high school. I can easily be a part of it but I don't fit in.
21. I can't care about what other people think. This is such a "duh" statement that we hear all the time but seriously, it took me til now to get it to sink in. I cared so much of what everyone else thought of me that I gave little to no credit to what I thought of myself. No matter how lofty your aspirations, if they belong to someone else and what THEY want for YOU, you'll feel forever lost and empty; even if you've gained the world in the process.
22. Perfectionism is ugly. People say they use it as a tool for "excellence" but really it's much more about judgment and whatever race is in the perfectionist's mind. I'm done racing. I'm ready to start living.
23. There are people out there that you can trust. People that will love you for who you are, no matter how that looks. The key is that they're not always where you expect to find them and you sometimes have to look very hard.
24. I've spoken in a lot of generalities and not covered for any exceptions that popped in my head. My perfectionism would've held that back before but now, I'm hoping that people see my heart and know that I know there are a lot of exceptions to nearly everything I've said. And if there are people that don't, for the first time in my life I can say I simply don't care. Actually, it's more like I can't. Too much of my life has been given to those who won't look at the hearts of people and I'm moving on.