Messy Grace

No one wants to be used as an example, so a whole book on how to respond to the homosexual community may seem at first glance a  tad "too much". Yet is is a hot topic issue these days and there does seem to be an "us vs. them" mentality, which is a sad thing.

Messy Grace by Caleb Kaltenbach is about how a pastor with gay parents learned to love others without sacrificing conviction. LOVE is the key word in this book. While it may focus on homosexuality, the point of this book is for Christians to love everyone. 

This book was an interesting insight into the pain that those in the LGBT communities feel from most Christians. Judgement, hate, fear. Christians should not portray any of these to anyone. We are not to judge, hate, or fear anyone. 

On the other hand, just as one would not want to be judged for being gay, the tables do turn because Christians get judged for being Christian. Kaltenbach felt judged as well as pushed away when he professed being a Christian to his parents. 

Gays are judged by their lifestyle. Christians are judged by their convictions. This book shows us that the judging needs to stop and the loving needs to start.

(Pg. 107) *We can be accepting but not approving.
*We can be loving without applauding.
*We can be compassionate without commending. 

This goes for all areas in our life. I can love a friend who lives with a boyfriend. I can support a daughter who gets pregnant out of wedlock. I can be there for a cousin that gets divorced. 

That's not to say that I need to start changing my convictions on those matters. It's to say that my place is not to judge someone else and to love everyone. That is the part of Messy Grace. People don't like to feel that you are "against" any part of their life. You may seem judgmental if you don't agree with a lifestyle.  I get that.  Kaltenbach writes "Typically, when we wrestle with the tension of grace and truth, we either go all the way to the grace side, where everything is deemed acceptable, or we go all the way to the truth side, where we speak truth and have no love. It’s harder to live in the tension of grace and truth".

While I do not agree with everything in this book, it opens the dialog. It preaches love and not judgement. It's a great book since this topic is such a big one these days.

This book was sent to me by Blogging for Books in exchange for my honest opinion.