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My Christian Roots

The Curve of Civilization

When I was three years old, my mom had me memorize the books of the Bible.

Can you imagine a little kid saying, "Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi" in one breath?

Those are the last books of the Old Testament.

And at three years old, I could recite them all.

I grew up with a deep knowledge of scripture. I know the stories, the verses, and the lessons.

But over the years, I started noticing something that troubled me.

What I saw in the lives of many church leaders and fellow Christians did not always match what I was reading in the Bible.

The values I was taught -- love, kindness, compassion, honesty -- did not seem to be the values being practiced.

That is when I began to understand something:

It is much harder to manipulate people with a loving God than with a hateful one.

A loving God inspires trust, empathy, and forgiveness. A hateful God inspires fear, division, and blind obedience.

I no longer belong to a church, but I still carry the values I learned as a child.

I measure my life against them every day.

And it makes me wonder:

If faith is truly about love, kindness, and truth, are those the values we live by in our actions?

Next in the series:
The People Who Lift Us Up -- I'll share how the people closest to me shaped my own values - and how simply knowing them made me proud to be who I am.

Series index:
The Curve of Civilization -- Table of Contents

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