Perceptions

I try to walk every day. I find I get more motivated to walk if I do something, have a purpose for walking. the road I live on is just short of a mile long from one end to the other. So almost every day I carry a bucket and a picker-upper. I try to keep the trash picked up. Some days when I know the road is looking fairly good I get in the truck and go to other areas where I have seen a lot of aluminum cans and I pick those up. I don't pick up all the trash except on my road. Several times people will stop and talk to me. One guy as I was picking up trash asked if I collected aluminum cans. I said yes but on my road, I pick up all the trash. That particular time I was on my road. He invited me to his house, he had a lot of empty cans stacked up and I could have them.  When I am picking up trash I wear old shoes because sometimes in reaching for a can I will step in mud. I wear one of my worst jackets because I don't want to get the good ones dirty.  I am not sure how I appeared to him but after offering me his cans he also said he runs a food bank and they are open until 8PM. I am not lacking food, one of the main reasons I am motivating myself to walk. I felt like he was thinking I am picking up cans for money. I do, I turn them in. I am hoping to collect a good amount throughout the year for a charitable donation. So I was happy to get his cans and from others that from time to time offer me their stash of aluminum cans. Perhaps it was wearing old clothes, perhaps because it is not the most common sight to see someone picking up aluminum cans. But I perceived that he perceived I was needy for food, the invitation to the food bank.  I remember some years ago when I was still an engineer with a good job, I would mow the church lawn to give something of my time. I didn't get paid, I wasn't asked, I just saw it needed to be done. I would also pick up the trash in the parking lot on Saturday afternoon in the church parking lot so it would be more presentable on Sunday morning. The church building was next door to a donut shop that generated a lot of trash. Some people that didn't know me very well would ask for me to trim bushes, I explain, I don't know how to do that. They would explain that they would pay me for the work. I did the best I knew which wasn't very good and never cashed the check. Are these perceptions accurate? Here again, President Trump has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts towards peace in the middle east and the first President in 30 years that did not start a new war. The BLM organization has also been nominated for a Nobel Peace prize, BLM activists were involved in 95% of the riots between June and September of last year. Are these perceptions accurate?  I am reading the book Un-Christian and see where we as Christians and non-Christians make judgments and have perceptions that are not always accurate. In fact, the three most popular perceptions of Christians is that we are anti-homosexual, judgmental, and hypocritical.  And I can see why; often we are very outspoken about our beliefs and perhaps are not real careful how we present our beliefs. Maybe our motivation is not true love. We are to be known for our love for others; we are even instructed to love our enemies. We are to judge other Christians but are not to judge those outside Christianity.  God is really the only true judge and his judgments are righteous because he sees us as we really are. This has been very thought-provoking for me as there have been times in the past when I saw how self-righteous I was or how my motivations were not pure. We try to speak Biblical truths but perhaps are not real careful in our presentation or timing. I don't like to hear this or read these perceptions in this book but at the same time, I can see it. I know many times I have said Christians are not perfect, it is a worn-out cliche. Pastors in Churches deal with the people in front of them and they really are not perfect. I hope I am not part of the problem. I hope I am part of the solution. We have the greatest message to give to a world that needs Jesus but we really are imperfect messengers trying to tell the world about a perfect and loving God. Sometimes we are in the way of those needing to see this Jesus, and they see imperfect Christians. Sometimes Christians are the only Bible some people read. Are we presenting a perfect God adequately? God help me to do better. Help me to be salt and light to a world that really needs Jesus.  God bless, LVZ.