Hello, sweet friends, and welcome to our debut article of the Chosen Girl Blog! We have dreamed of a platform here for solely writing since we began CG in June of 2019, and it is finally here. We don't take this lightly: thank you for every like, follow, listen, and read. I am both grateful and terrified of this platform (hello, 2021 Cancel Culture). What do I mean by this? Praise God, there is a space for mine and so many other amazing women's voices to be heard to give glory to God. On the flip side, my gosh...a space to share MY voice. lol Both honoring and intimidating at the exact same time, if I'm being completely honest. Consider this "doing it scared," if you will. 

Starting Chosen Girl was like an overnight thing that was two years in the making. It's the weirdest thing in my life to explain. I had felt this churning in my soul for almost a year leading up to even vocalizing the thought of Chosen Girl. It was a complete longing for more: Asking questions, exploring doubts, researching who God really is, and where do I fit into all of this are just a few ideas bouncing around in my heart, for starters. I remember thinking "Does anyone else in faith feel this way?" Of course, I felt the prompting of God to start this community, space, platform...whatever CG is to you. It, at the end of the day, is alllll for Him. However, it is SO much so for you, too. For the girl with questions, for the girl with doubts, for the girl wondering where you fit in, and if God even cares about the details of your life (spoiler alert, He does)...for the girl who genuinely longs for God's will to be lived out in her life, but just doesn't quite know where to start...Chosen Girl is for you. 

So, sit back and relax. Pour some coffee/tea, and kick up your feet. You're safe here, and we hope you feel that. Whether you're close to God, angry, aggravated, annoyed, afraid...fill in the blank, there's a seat for you at our table. This space is for you. Welcome.

Congrats, you made it through my long introduction. Yes, that was the introduction. Meet "mouth of the south."

I would be delighted to tell you that this article is all about the centralized idea of Chosen Girl, in true "branding" or marketing form to kick off our blog. If you're expecting that, you must have never met me. lol. I had every intention of writing something completely central to who we are at our core at Chosen Girl, rather, something else is irking at my heart and I have to follow that. (wink wink, hello Holy Spirit). So, buckle up, because here at Chosen Girl, we believe God puts issues/topics on our heart for a reason. Also, if you're wanting to know the "bones" of Chosen Girl, reference our first 3 "Tell Me Bout It" show notes! 

Jumping right in here, I'm burdened. I wonder if God is, too. I would guess, yes.

Why? 

Christians are cringy. THERE, I SAID IT.

Now, disclaimer here: I hate stereotypes and I am literally grouping us Christians into one. Bare with me as I work though this. What I mean by this is: 

1. This is from the viewpoint of the World/Culture.

2. This does not include everyone. I know some of the most loving Jesus followers EVER. 

3. This is not directed at anyone, group, denomination, etc. 

4. This is not talking in the context of "not being of this World." 

Just a general thought. I'm sure you would agree with me in at least some ways. Please, don't come for me if you disagree. Just sharing my inner struggle here. 

This doesn't burden me out of embarrassment or for the sake of being "unpopular" or "off-trend" or any other shallow reason that could pop up. It burdens me because its our main job as the (big C) Church to share the good, life-transforming, awakening, joyful news of the gospel of Jesus. 

So many arguments that come up here could discuss a few things like bending doctrine to go along with mainstream culture, or popular church leaders wearing trendy, overpriced brands, but that isn't even the direction I'm headed in. 

I'm talking about how we treat people as a whole. I'm talking about loving like Jesus.

It makes me sick to my stomach when I think about waiters and waitresses dreading working on Sunday because after church crowds are notoriously rude and tip poorly. It irks me to my soul when I see someone at a store being rude to the cashier with a memory verse printed on their debit card, or wearing a cross necklace. Tik Tok is covered with satire on Church culture, and I'm not even talking about content creators making fun of the Duggars, here. I'm talking about using how we treat people as a means of humor. And the sad thing is, maybe we have given them a reason to roast us. Ouch. 

Following Jesus is not a tradition or brand to be worn around with trendy tees (cue Chosen Girl lol), bumper stickers, cross necklaces, or attending the most popular church congregations. Y'all- this is life or death. This is not a social status, trend of the Bible belt, or security blanket to make us "feel" better. 

Where did we go so wrong in the transition of taking what Jesus did and said here on this Earth when He was here, to how we behave in the Faith now? I know, I know. Little me is very good at playing miss pollyanna, seeing things from such an innocent perspective. I for real wonder all the time, "why can't we all just get along?!" lol. I know that corruption, doctrine, even the good intentions of man have gotten things alllll jumbled up over the last two thousand years. It was bound to happen with our human condition. 

Okay, now that I've ranted about our screwups and chalked it all up to our sinful nature that comes from being a human, lets talk solutions. I would love to think that I, myself, loving people could redeem the entire Church from a hateful or judgmental reputation. The fact is that I'm not that loving and I'm definitely not that powerful, but I know someone who is. Only God can redeem us. BUT, we can do better. How do we do this? 

1. Humble ourselves and show grace always. We will mess up. Others around us will mess up. We aren't righteous because of our own selves, after all.
2. Stop "playing Holy Spirit." WHEN did we start to think that is our jobs to convict people? When we try to do the job that only the Holy Spirit can do, it comes across as flawed condemnation. Our job is to lead people TO Jesus so that His Spirit can get to work on their heart. We aren't heart surgeons, and even if we were, we could not even begin to do the work that really needs to be done in the spirit of a man. 
3. Learn to love well. Read 1 Corinthians 13. Read it again. Keep it simple and take it back to the basics of the golden rule. Love with no strings attached to your benefit, interests, agreements, or opinions. 

Go ahead, call me a "Christian Hippie." I think at this point, I'd take it as a compliment. Call me what you want, but you can't deny the bad reputation that our Faith has as a whole. Its amazing to me that people seem to be generally open to the idea of Jesus as a man but not Christians as a people or culture. This should tell us something, friends. 

Jesus made our job easy with His command: tell people about Him. Just HIM. Not what we think is right, good, acceptable, or true: just HIM. This makes me excited. This I can do. I imagine that Jesus appreciates the sentiment of our extra effort of adding in our own spin and opinion, but He never asked us to. He probably would rather us not. Just introduce Him. 

What a gracious God to make our job so simplistic. 

Okay, thats my TED talk. Let's go love some people.