Misunderstood
Hi friends, it’s been a couple of weeks since I posted. I’m not sure if anyone even reads these, but maybe some of you do. And I’m thankful for those that take the time to read my 22-year-old thoughts. When I decided I was moving to Kerrville for my job back in January of this year, I told myself I wanted to be as authentic and faithful to the Lord as possible. To not take on the personality and opinions of those around me for the sake of being liked, and to not try to be anything other than who the Lord made me to be. It’s been hard and I have failed more times than I can count, but this post is going to be my best attempt to be as candid as possible.
Being authentic and faithful has come with its own costs. I think the biggest cost has been feeling SO misunderstood. By coworkers, friends, family, strangers, I think I have felt very misunderstood in all of these spaces. There have been times when I have openly talked about truths that the Lord is teaching me through His word and have felt like the whole room thinks I’m the most legalistic douchebag ever. There has also been moments of confessing and talking through faith things where I have felt like people think I’m a progressive Arminian or something lol. I promise I’m not either of those things btw! And maybe this is all in my own head, but for some reason, I am feeling it even more so these days.
However, the more I look at the scriptures, I see that Jesus is no stranger to feeling misunderstood. Especially being misunderstood in faith circles. I think I’m learning a lot that being misunderstood is actually a huge part to being a faithful follower of Jesus. From Jesus’ own mouth, he says, “Woe to you when all people speak well of you, for this is the way their ancestors used to treat the false prophets” (Luke 6:26). Or even Matthew 5:11 when Jesus says, “You are blessed when they insult you and persecute you and falsely say every kind of evil against you because of me.” All this to say, I think being misunderstood is pretty consistent with the teachings of Jesus.
I swear I’m not trying to call myself the apostle Paul or claim to know every theological truth or anything like that by what I wrote above. I’m not being thrown in Jail or even feeling extremely persecuted because of my faith. Oftentimes, I crave people speaking well of me. I don’t want to be disliked, especially when it comes to my faith. But, I think I just wanted to be honest about how I feel. Sorry if this post isn’t making being a follower of Jesus the most attractive thing on the planet. It really isn’t sometimes. And it can sound foolish to those who are perishing. But I have found the most comfort when I meet with the Lord on these matters. When I let Him in and let Him be with me in these groans. I am blessed when I am misunderstood. Lord, help me to remember that.
