I remember attending a couple churches during my youthful rebellious period. I was kicked out and invited not to return. I don’t blame them because I was totally adverse to their lifestyle. However I needed the Jesus they had, and they probably needed the obnoxious creature I was to help them get over themselves. We had matching needs and didn’t know it.

I ran into some Jesus street people. They had the simple belief that there wasn’t anything so bad that Jesus couldn’t fix it. They weren’t appalled by me but rather fascinated by how Jesus would work with me and change me. They weren’t focused on my current state but on the God that deals with all conditions of men. Their attitude was compelling. They believed in a God who was greater than all of humanity.

My dialogue with the Jesus people caused me to examine myself and my ideas. I realized that mankind without God was incomplete, and the virtues of Jesus were beyond any that man could manufacture or maintain without Him. I was convinced. I began prayer to a God I now believed to be alive and real and asked Him to be my God. I have been growing in a better direction ever since.

I remember telling my testimony to a man who called me a lier because he believed I had never been as bad as I said. I was highly offended and about to take him on in my anger. I didn’t because I heard that quiet whisper in my heart that said something like, “Be quiet. He’s paying me a compliment.” I realized that he was calling me a lier because I didn’t look like or act the way I had been any more. God had changed me. I went from angry to grateful.

I’m active in church, now but I remember that hurt from long ago. That is not the way Jesus operates but the way humans operate. Jesus has never had a problem correcting me or pointing out my short comings. He doesn’t condemn or reject. He deals with failings as something in need of healing and correction to bring someone into health and wholeness. I believe church is very important, but I believe Jesus’s methods and priorities are crucial. Follow Jesus and the shortcoming of mankind can never turn you bitter.