Hi, friends. I'm back and I'm still frustrated (see blog post: "I'm Frustrated" from last year). 

I guess I'm just really wondering where we go from here. The reputation of the (big C) Church in the Southeastern United States is plastered in hate, intolerance, racism, extremism, abuse...and I could go on, sadly. I, as a believer, know that the Church is made up of imperfect people to which we still need to extend grace...but the world doesn't know that. 

Why don't they know that?

It may be because we've extended truth without grace, which is mean. We've extended judgment with double-standards, which is hypocritical. We've extended political agenda without wisdom and consideration, which is irrelevant to God's Word and Gospel. We've extended loud assumptions and opinions to issues without solution, which is unhelpful. We've extended intolerance for issues that we cannot imagine relating to without humility, which is unloving. 

I digress. 

Point is, I'm reaching out to the generation rising up that we are so grateful for in this online community that is our Chosen Girl family to not only ask you, but challenge you, in your thoughts on how we can best move forward as individual Christ followers in a broken world. 

We cannot change a reputation overnight, but I firmly believe we can each carry a candle of influence in our small circles to light up dark spaces around each of us. 

So tell me in the comments! How can we love better? Serve better? Understand better? Empathize better?

I get really frustrated with the current climate and am 100% guilty of staying in that headspace. Lets move outside of the hopelessness that can come with that and move toward individual self reflection that can lead to tangible change. So...y'all let a girl know! 

xoxo, Sarah