Misconceptions

Daily thoughts about God

 

Three common misconceptions about Christianity are that:

1) You are in charge of the strength of your faith

2) God brings you to bad things and then through them 

3) Being a Christian means no more hard times 

1) You are not in charge of how strong your faith is. In all the places of the bible where faith is mentioned, it's where God is giving it to someone. Not someone saying "I need to have stronger faith". You don't need to have stronger faith, because God has given you all you need. You just need to trust it more; trust God that He will keep the promise from Jeremiah 29:11 – "'For I have great plans for you,' declares the Lord, 'Plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a future.'"

2) God doesn't cause bad things to happen to you. He allows things to happen; He prevents things from happening. When someone you love dies, it's not about you. It's about Him calling them Home. I believe God knows everyone's time, therefore no one goes before they should. The way they go depends on the World. When someone loses an unborn child, it's not a punishment for that person. When someone is diagnosed with cancer or any other disease, or has a life-impairing accident, it is not wrath being rained down. God cursed the earth because of Adam and Eve; this is why we have natural disasters, hurricanes, tornadoes, why we have to work the ground hard to get food. Because the earth is cursed, bad things happen. God gives you the faith to get through it, and from that faith comes the strength and hope of a Christian. 

3) As a Christian, you are going to have the same amount of hard times as other people. You will lose loved ones. You will get sick. Things, and life, will happen. The difference is that we have Hope. We have the not-secret knowledge that something better lies beyond this world, and we are here not for ourselves, but to glorify God. I would rather live with the knowledge that bad things will happen and have the hope and faith in the Truth of God and know I'll get through it; than live in the lie that He doesn't care or isn't there. 

At war with ourselves

Have you ever been at war with yourself? I have. Many times. I argue with me constantly about how I am. 

Side A: Why can't you just be more "normal"?

Side B: I act and think the way that I do because of chemical imbalances in my brain--the receptors aren't receiving what the senders are sending. I didn't cause that, I was born that way--God created me that way, and He doesn't make mistakes.

Side A: He might not make mistakes, but the earth is cursed, and people are born with disabilities all the time. There's medicine to correct it, to help those synapses make those connections.

Side B: First of all, I take medicine. It helps me keep control of myself, and it helps me focus, but it does not change who I am. Second of all, I do NOT have a disease.

And ooooh, does it go on and on ... So, this is what I've come up with:

A) It doesn't matter that I'm not "normal". God created me the way that I am, and as long as my actions glorify Him, not me, I'm good.
B) I don't have to be perfect. Nowhere anywhere is there a rule that says I have to be perfect. 
C) I'm Forgiven. 

Don't worry about how great you think you aren't, how you can make yourself better, or any of that mess. Worry about making decisions that will honor God, and you can be as ADHD as you want. People with ADHD are either left- or right-brained. I'm a right-brain ADHD--I'm all about the creativity and writing and imagination and everything. I'm horrible at math and spacial distances. I have used my ADHD to help myself and help others. So don't see your ADHD as a curse or a disease--it is a superpower, and you can use it to help other people that can't quite see the world the way you do.