Hillsong is awesome and tonight just gave me that bit of inspiration I needed…
It’s certainly been the season in my favour lately. With Christianity on the rise, Donald Trump being a forerunner for president, record numbers of Muslims converting – many have said in over 2000 years there is no better time to be a follower of Christ.
Tonight I have come off the back from an awesomely impressive Christmas Celebration at Hillsong Church in Baulkham Hills (Sydney). There were thousands of people, line up after line up of performers and a reminder of how strong we are doing these days as a community.
It hasn’t been a few easy years being a Christian though previously. With Obama leading the world in anti-Christian sentiment, what Islamic State / Daesh has been doing to people across the middle east combined with the demographic change of Muslims coming into the west – it’s been easy to feel sad and demoralised.
My sadness is not that we are shrinking in numbers (as we are growing), but more culturally – that is, we cannot say what we want, do what we want with the requirements of being politically correct.
What I have found personally inspiring and joyful about being a Christian is not religion. As quoted in Hillsong tonight, (me included) “nobody likes religion” which I couldn’t agree more with. We are seeing many traditional churches disappear, mosques on the rise – but the new age church and cathedrals grow beautifully.
What is awesome about being a Christian is the personal relationship we have with Jesus Christ. That is, instead of being ‘alone’ in this world, we can have that unique personal connection with Jesus and experience the world through his message of peace and joy.
I was born again in my mid 20’s roughly and I remember being quite alone and isolated in life. I don’t mean with people, but whatever I was doing in my life just wasn’t satisfying me. When I was lucky to attend Christian events, I found that through key teachings – we can ‘connect’ personally with Jesus giving us true joy and connection.
Some have labelled me weak saying “oh you need Jesus? Well you suck Ed, I don’t”. Strangely – those people doing that are anything but strong (in fact, many could be dismissed as “losers” by traditional societal standards).
For me, having that personal connection with Jesus Christ is a very important thing and that is the joy that comes. It gives us clarity, direction, focus and sense of satisfaction in that our ‘personal achievements’ go to something greater beyond ourselves.
My advice? If you aren’t a Christian – get to Hillsong (or a new age equivalent) and check it out. Give it a fair run and have an open mind. Regardless of any religion you follow, it’s great (for my Muslim friends too, I encourage you to consider this).
If you are a “Christian”, but aren’t feeling it – time to re-examine this. Get along and check it out. A bit of inspiration is required and helpful.
In short it’s been just awesome! There have been tough times in that my Christianity led me to having people kick me out of networking events and social groups (including old relationships ending), but awesome! They suck anyway and it’s great going in the right direction and having a life of awesomeness and satisfaction.
Thanks for the read, thanks to Hillsong – and of course stay awesome and GOD BLESS YOU!
No responses yet