Latest / The Living Freed Podcast / Dear Diary: Performative Christians ( Rant )
Transcript
- 0:20Okay, welcome back to Dear Diary episode. Again,
- 0:25y 'all know this is unfiltered, unedited, And
- 0:28it's just gonna be me rambling for who knows
- 0:30how long probably not super long but let me tell
- 0:33you what has been on my mind and my very last
- 0:36nerve is Performative Christianity like truly
- 0:41it really is and what I mean by that is I feel
- 0:44like Lately, maybe I'm just on social media more
- 0:47often or because I'm doing a podcast. I'm more
- 0:50self -aware I'm not sure which but i am so over
- 0:54performative christianity and that being like
- 0:57the people who are posting about what they're
- 0:58doing on social media for the sake of looking
- 1:01a certain way as a christian um the music that
- 1:04they listen to like they only listen to a couple
- 1:07music art christian music music couple christian
- 1:10music artists because that's what the mainstream
- 1:12christians are listening to or what it's cool
- 1:15to listen to the ones that are constantly posting
- 1:18about like how they're serving like just serve
- 1:21from your heart just serve from your heart um
- 1:24when people tell me that they've given money
- 1:26to a homeless person to talk about it i'm like
- 1:28the bible literally says it'd be better for you
- 1:30to not have given anything if you're gonna do
- 1:32it out of trying to get glory from other people
- 1:36Performative Christians, it just brings me back
- 1:38to, ow, I almost just ripped my earring out.
- 1:41It just brings me back to the Pharisees and the
- 1:45Sadducees and the New Testament where Jesus is
- 1:49like, yo, y 'all are literally doing this for
- 1:51attention. And I was having this conversation
- 1:53with some friends the other night and I was like,
- 1:55who am I to talk? Like, I have a podcast. But
- 1:58and I'm never gonna say I'm better than somebody
- 2:00else or because how I do it is how it needs to
- 2:02be handled But here's my thing. This is my issue
- 2:04with it is one People who aren't Christians see
- 2:07it and they see it coming off as fake and it
- 2:10makes your they're the performant It makes the
- 2:13performative Christians Look like they don't
- 2:16know what it's like to have an authentic relationship
- 2:19to I don't remember where I'm going with this.
- 2:22Two is new baby Christians that see these performative
- 2:27Christians. This is what bothers me. For example,
- 2:31there's this girl I follow on Instagram. She
- 2:33seems nice. I like her. She, I guess, is trying
- 2:38to become a Christian influencer or something.
- 2:39It looks that way by the things that she's posting.
- 2:42And you can tell it's so catered towards a particular
- 2:46type of Christian girl that is the everyday Christian
- 2:49girl. Especially here in the south. Um, if you
- 2:52live here, you know what I mean Anyways, and
- 2:55she said something like when your heavenly father
- 2:57spoils you It just it really unsettled my heart
- 3:02or my spirit or maybe my pride I don't know which
- 3:05y 'all can message me and let me know Because
- 3:07I was like man if a new christian sees that like
- 3:10they don't know what it means to be spoiled by
- 3:11their heavenly father Because guess what? I don't
- 3:14know what it means to be spoiled by my heavenly
- 3:15father. Does god love me? Absolutely. Do I see
- 3:18that he loves me every day? Absolutely. But what
- 3:21does it mean to be spoiled by your heavenly father?
- 3:23Because here's the thing in this world spoiled
- 3:27means something so particular and you think of
- 3:30like sugar daddies you think of uh like the husbands
- 3:33that people are gold diggers for like your brain
- 3:36goes a certain way you're thinking vacations
- 3:37and monies and trips or maybe that's just me
- 3:40but the bible never says god's gonna spoil us
- 3:43It says God's going to provide for us. It says
- 3:46we're going to have a fatherly love. Spoiled?
- 3:49I was spoiled enough when he sent his son to
- 3:51die for me. Thank you. That's all I needed. His
- 3:53son died for my sins. I get to live for eternity
- 3:57with my father. Spoiled? What does that mean?
- 4:00So for like new baby Christians that see that
- 4:03and they, like people, not all of us have a fair
- 4:05life. I my mom always said this to me like not
- 4:08everybody's life is fair life isn't going to
- 4:10be fair some of us live a harder life than others
- 4:12and i'm not saying i have i'm just saying in
- 4:14general some people christian or not christian
- 4:17have lived a harder life than others and when
- 4:19they see that like how discouraging could that
- 4:21be because they probably sit there like oh am
- 4:23i not the right christian am i not the right
- 4:26type of christian because i'm not being spoiled
- 4:28by god does god not love me am i not worth this
- 4:31like where is my worth being found It just was
- 4:34so unbiblically correct and it just drives me
- 4:38up a wall when I see stuff like that. Yeah, anyways,
- 4:43that's my latest rant is performative Christians.
- 4:48I could probably continue to go on but I don't
- 4:50know how healthy that would be for it, you know?
- 4:54Because I also feel like it, like I said, it
- 4:56keeps non -believers from wanting to be believers.
- 4:58It makes the new Christians Feel like maybe they're
- 5:01not doing something right and then it just makes
- 5:03me agitated straight up like I'm sure I can't
- 5:06be the only one there has to be other people
- 5:08like me that sees that gets annoyed and then
- 5:10I have to check my pride and y 'all already heard
- 5:12my whole conversation about pride and how it's
- 5:14already a problem that I deal with every single
- 5:16day and I have to check myself every single day
- 5:19and it's not fun But maybe Maybe that's why I
- 5:24follow her on Instagram, is it's to check myself.
- 5:27I don't know. But again, then I have the other
- 5:29Christians that talk about all their serving
- 5:30that they do, and I think it's a beautiful thing
- 5:32to serve. I mean, I serve. I know plenty of other
- 5:34people who serve, but I don't think we need to
- 5:36post about it all the time. Every single time
- 5:38that we serve, I don't think we need to post
- 5:39about it. You know? It just comes off performative.
- 5:44Like, are you doing it from the goodness of your
- 5:45heart and for attention? Are you doing it from
- 5:48the goodness of your heart and because you love
- 5:49Jesus? Are you I guess the point is like what
- 5:53type of attention are you trying to get at the
- 5:55end of the day with it? You know And then I go
- 5:58back to I have a podcast. What type of tension
- 6:01attention am I trying to get? I don't know Well,
- 6:05actually I really hate attention. So never mind
- 6:07But yeah performant performative Christians if
- 6:13you are equally annoyed with the performative
- 6:15Christians, especially online Raise your hand
- 6:20And you can join my club And also can we just
- 6:23go back to being raw and real can we all I'm
- 6:26just over social media I am and all this stuff
- 6:28people do to get attention. I I'm over it. I'm
- 6:32so over it. Um Yeah, oh I had this total sidetrack
- 6:39total sidetrack I had someone ask somebody asked
- 6:43me why I don't put my podcast on video and Didn't
- 6:50really know I mean, I think it's gonna be a hard
- 6:52thing to do when it does go on video one day
- 6:54if that happens But outside of it being hard,
- 6:57which I already conquered this part. So how could
- 7:00I not conquer that, you know? but I ended up
- 7:03talking to this man at my church randomly on
- 7:05a Sunday when my roommate made me go by myself
- 7:08and She's gonna hate hearing that And he was
- 7:12talking about how when he preaches people try
- 7:14to videotape him and he'll stop preaching because
- 7:16then it comes about him Becomes about him and
- 7:18not god and I realized that i'm I do feel that
- 7:22way like if I put this on video Not are other
- 7:26people gonna make it about me But am I gonna
- 7:28make it about me? Like am I gonna be so obsessed
- 7:30with my appearance and how I look or what i'm
- 7:32wearing? Also, my outfit today is super cute
- 7:35But that's because I had a break between like
- 7:37hours off between clients. So I was able to come
- 7:40home um, so like low -key wish y 'all could see
- 7:43my outfit, but at the same time kind of glad
- 7:45you can't because I would be obsessed with what
- 7:49everybody thinks of how I look or am I showing
- 7:51up well or I wasn't smiling in that shop and
- 7:54my RBF is really bad. And so where was I going
- 7:58with this is a great question. Oh, yeah. So having
- 8:01that conversation with him gave me my aha moment
- 8:04of I don't put this on video because I would
- 8:07make this about myself and this podcast is not
- 8:10about me. Even though I often talk about my life
- 8:12experiences, it's about God at the end of the
- 8:15day. And I don't think people need to see my
- 8:17face to know it's about Jesus or to know what
- 8:21it's like to live in freedom. Um, yeah. And so
- 8:25that's a really nice conversation to have with
- 8:27a random man that I haven't seen since. And I
- 8:30think he's displaced. Like I think he doesn't
- 8:32have a home. Uh, that was kind of the vibe I
- 8:35was getting from the conversation and the appearance
- 8:38and just the energy all around and why people
- 8:42would take videos of him preaching. It like all
- 8:44makes sense. But I loved his perspective on it
- 8:47and it kind of just gave me a lot of clarity.
- 8:49And then later in the church service, like the
- 8:52sermon, the girl who was talking basically said
- 8:55something along the same lines about like making
- 8:57it about us and our parents doing it or God.
- 9:00And I was like, yeah, that's totally it. It's
- 9:02about God. It's not about me and what I look
- 9:04like or what I'm doing. And I don't want to take
- 9:06myself too serious and I don't want to take pride
- 9:08in what I look like or any of that. So anyways,
- 9:12that's my random sidetracked side track on that
- 9:16and yeah That's all I got Also, I thought That
- 9:23the forest Frank thing like his back being killed
- 9:25is amazing But apparently there's a lot of hate
- 9:27going on with another Christian artist and there's
- 9:30drama coming in about that But I don't keep up
- 9:32with that world like the secular Music and not
- 9:36secular like the Christian music drama stuff.
- 9:38Yeah, I don't keep up with it Maybe I should
- 9:40because I have no idea what's going on And again
- 9:46Why are people upset? Why do people get upset
- 9:49so easily? Like can we all just calm down and
- 9:52enjoy our lives? Why do we have to make drama
- 9:55out of everything? Oh, and then another person
- 10:01had posted about like, oh, I messaged like girls
- 10:03in my group about what to pray for for my future
- 10:05husband. And I'm like, baby girl, like you're
- 10:08single and that's great. And I love that. But
- 10:10again, like, are you posting this to encourage
- 10:12others to pray? Are you posting it because you
- 10:14want to appear a certain way to Christians or
- 10:17like Christian men or like, what is the agenda?
- 10:20Is it my job to decide their agenda? Absolutely
- 10:23not. Absolutely not. It's definitely not. Is
- 10:26it my job to judge her based off these posts?
- 10:28Absolutely not. But to go back to my other episode
- 10:31of Discernment is my spirit of Discernment saying,
- 10:34this seems really performative. Don't take it
- 10:36too seriously. Yes. Also this girl prayed over
- 10:39my friend at church and that prayer did not feel
- 10:41like it had the Holy Spirit in it. Like that
- 10:45did feel performative. It was the longest prayer
- 10:47of my life. Very repetitive. Her eyes were open
- 10:50like she didn't really seem like she was like
- 10:53really in tune with what was happening. I now
- 10:55i'm just being straight up judgy Anyways, my
- 10:58spirit was clocking it was like this does not
- 11:00seem authentic which is fine because the spirit
- 11:04discerns for us and will like Tell god what we
- 11:09need in prayer, which is amazing. So like does
- 11:11it really matter? No but it it just didn't feel
- 11:14like her heart was in it and yeah So again, it's
- 11:20just the performativeness. That's what bothers
- 11:23me is are you performing and thing is is am I
- 11:27am I performing for y 'all or am I Aligned with
- 11:31God's will and that's why you have to listen
- 11:34to me ramble on because now I'm sitting here
- 11:36like am I performing? Which I don't think I am
- 11:39performing because again, there's only like 20
- 11:4240 Okay, there are 40 people that listen to this
- 11:45podcast, but that's literally nothing compared
- 11:47to like other podcasts which is perfect because
- 11:50i don't want to be seen or known in that way
- 11:53and i don't want to be a performer and i don't
- 11:57want to get caught up in performing in all eyes
- 11:59on me because it's not about me at the end of
- 12:01the day just like it's not about you at the end
- 12:02of the day it's about god so are we performing
- 12:05now on social media no i'm not performing at
- 12:11all i hope you're not performing don't feel like
- 12:13you need to perform for people y 'all we really
- 12:15don't we really truly don't because yes it's
- 12:19fun to like have the attention sure but we're
- 12:25not called to have the attention we're called
- 12:27to give God the glory and that goes back to the
- 12:30Sadducees when it talked about Jesus and they
- 12:32recognized that Jesus was the son of God but
- 12:34some chose to ignore it because they were comfortable
- 12:36in their life And if you want I can pull up the
- 12:39verse later, but they were comfortable in their
- 12:41life and they liked this the stature that they
- 12:43had and the glory that they got from all the
- 12:45regular Jewish people and that goes back to being
- 12:48performative like am I living my life for God
- 12:51or Am I being performative for the eyes of men
- 12:54because of the glory I get from it or am I giving
- 12:57all the glory to God? That's all I have okay
- 13:04I still haven't learned how to end this Dear
- 13:06Diaries segment, so peace out, love y 'all, hope
- 13:11you're having a great day, bye!