That last entry made me think. (Go figure.) I remembered some stuff I learned in Sunday School this year that really got me.

"Some people say 'All Christians are hypocrites.' Let's look at this; what makes a hypocrite?" Mark asked us one Sunday.

"When our actions don't fit our words," someone spoke up. Everyone nodded in agreement, including myself.

"Like when we say, 'Committing adultery is bad' but then do it ourselves," someone else added.

That could apply to everything, too, I thought to myself, listing off to myself all the sins I ever learned about from church.

"But what makes us Christians?" Mark asked.

I was struck dumb. What makes us Christians? Two answers were conflicting in my head. My philosophy all through life has been don't do bad stuff--the stuff churches tell you are bad--and that makes you a Christian. But just these last couple years, since what I call my "spiritual birthday" in July 2003, I had been slowly coming to think that being a Christian consists only of believing that Jesus paid the sacrifice for all our sins--believing that's all we need to be saved: to know that Jesus paid the sacrifice. I'm not sure where the idea came from. But it makes sense... It jives with the many, many messages I have heard in church about "believing in your heart", etc., etc.

But if believing is all we need to be Christians...

"Is what we do or don't do what makes us Christians?" Mark asked the silent class. We all shook our heads.

"Then calling Christians hypocrites, because their words don't match their actions, is a false statement," Mark concluded. "We are all human. And we all make mistakes. That doesn't make us hypocrites. It just makes us human."

Oy... I'm going to get hopped on all over for this, I can feel it.

Isn't that crazy though? I still haven't quite got it. I still am lost on the question of what makes us Christians. What does make us Christians? Christian means "follower of Christ." "Follower of Christ..." Doesn't that mean we do what He did? Doesn't that mean we believe what He said? And what did He say? I guess I will have to read the Gospels again.

You never stop learning.

-Stephanie