Pillars are Just Crutches

I did something new this summer. I got a job that had no connections to either the church or my family. I’ve never done that before, and I think it was the best thing I could have done!

I didn’t purposefully go out and get a different job so not to work with my family, I actually just wanted to stay in Edmonton so I didn’t go home. However, I did make sure that I got a job that had no connections to any church members I know and wasn’t some sort of ministry!

I had a couple of reasons for this. In my ministry working career I’ve worked very heavily for 3 ministries and two of them ripped me off and abused me.  I won’t go into detail, but the latter of the two gave me a distaste for anything even remotely churchy.

So I thought I’d find out what the secular workforce is like, and I’ve got to say, non-Christians are nicer and better to work for than Christians. If you think I just found really crappy ministries and 1 good job the latter ministry is a world-renowned missions organization and the amount of people I run into hurt by any given ministry is astounding!!

I got to thinking going into the job that I’d be a black sheep. I had spent so long (close to 7 years) completely surrounded by Christians that I thought I wouldn’t be able to relate to anyone out of that circle. The opposite has turned out to be true. I get along with this group of people better than any group of Christians I have ever worked with (with one exception). So, I’ve been trying to figure this out. We Christians have a common cause, a common purpose, we want to achieve something that beyond ourselves and yet, as I see it, we have this problem with how we treat each other. It doesn’t really make sense.

I was talking to someone about how good work was going and about all my worries about being a black sheep being rubbish and she told me, “Of course Adam, we’re all people, we’re all the same!”

And it hit me why Christians put up with being treated like shit for so long. They are told that they are some how different from every other working person in the world because they have Jesus and because they are ‘working for’ Jesus. So now, all of the sudden, they can work the longer hours, be happier with less money, and even take it from behind every so often with a smile on thier face.

Well, I can’t.

Sorry, let me rephrase, I won’t.

We’re all the same. We all have jobs to do. Working for the church doesn’t mean I need to work more and for less. And it definitely doesn’t mean I should be able to get walked on.

If that’s the case, I quit.

This has been created because I needed a blog on my Facebook page seeing as I haven’t been using myspace almost at all lately. So I am going to transition over to writing blogs on my facebook page.

The title of my blog is Pillars are just Crutches. I chose that name for 3 reasons. Sometimes we see pillars – bigger than life things that seem to hold us up and keep us steady and worship them and praise them when, even though they are so grand, all they are are crutches that deserve no praise at all, and we become dependent on them, until they collapse under the weight of our dependence of them.

And the second reason I chose the title is because the word crutch has a negative connotation. Like, ‘Christianity is his crutch’. If I said, “Christianity is his pillar” it would mean virtually the same thing with a positive spin on it. Pillars and Crutches have the same function and purpose, who cares if one is bigger than the other.

The third reason: It sounds cool.

So, this is my Facebook blog! Enjoy!