Do Christians Give Jesus a Bad Name

A couple of thoughts keep hitting me or keep getting presented to me: do people who call themselves Christians give a good example of Jesus. Recently I have been working through Acts and I John and when you combine them you have an interesting look on life. I John has a major theme about Jesus' love, experiencing it, living it, and allowing yourself to understand it while Acts talks about the church, the original church, not necessarily what it has turned into today. The combination of those teachings and some great conversations have challenged me to to question my life, my motives, my actions: would people see Jesus through how I live my life, are people attracted to Jesus by my actions, words, etc... What makes my life different because Jesus is in it?

When I ask myself the tough questions I have to admit that I am pretty selfish at times, that I like things that are comfortable and I want people to think the same way that I think. When that doesn't happen my first reaction is to say that they are wrong, I am RIGHT! But sometimes I am wrong, and sometimes both of us are right.

One thing that I am eternally grateful for is that God is bigger than me and my understanding and I wrestle to leave it at that. So for today I am challenging myself to not give Jesus a bad name, to show people selfless love, and to capture every moment of life that I am fortunate enough to have.