I always hear people telling me how easy to see Christians who were churched all their lives as sheltered. With this come harsh comments and "it's so unfair." But I even have agnostic friends who are sheltered this way. Though less so, they're vulnerable to this criticism as well. They get upset over the smallest things. They throw temper tantrums over the most minor details. My roommate says, "They had a relatively decent life. Small things affect them more than they do us."
And who wants to be criticized for something they couldn't have controlled?
But now I also know, how sheltered I am. How I've complained about my insecurities and blamed my mental illnesses to reveal how imperfect I am and be accepted. How much I open up with what I've gone through in order to avoid this judgment and distinguish myself from also being labeled as "sheltered."
Jayesslee sang a cover of "Coming Home" a while back, and they rewrote some of the verses: "we were inspired tell a story of a lost man who had nothing left after wasting his fortune on all the wrong things." A big chunk of what they wrote goes like this:
Wasn't a moment where it was easy
Makin' sure I stayed outta line
Took everything that was mine
But what was even mine to begin with?
Now that I've come to my senses
I now see the answers.
I can only imagine this man as someone who grew up in a wealthy and content background, wasting his life away because he didn't know any better. And now as he approaches the end of it, he sees how stupidly he acted. "But what was even mine to begin with?" God gave him the riches of the world but because he selfishly used it to build a crazy life story for himself instead of for God, he lost everything.
Job once said, "Naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked I will depart. The LORD gave and the LORD has taken away."
So when will people stop criticizing each others' backgrounds and comparing misfortunes? Making sure their testimony is the best so they can avoid labels and wow a bigger audience? God is the only one who sovereignly gives and takes. He is also the one and only Judge.
