{"id":5301,"date":"2017-11-29T13:17:01","date_gmt":"2017-11-29T19:17:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tampaseo.expert\/focus\/?p=5301"},"modified":"2017-11-29T13:17:01","modified_gmt":"2017-11-29T19:17:01","slug":"what-if","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tampaseo.expert\/focus\/2017\/11\/29\/what-if\/","title":{"rendered":"What If"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Jaime Harper<\/strong>
\nEvery Sunday morning there are individuals who enter a church building, put on their happy masks and walk across a foyer, beginning a weekly ritual of Christianity for the day. Because of the mask, no one really knows them, knows the pain, the struggles, the heartaches they are living in.\u00a0 Their weekly custom is an attempt to fit in somewhere\u2013\u2013anywhere\u2013\u2013yet they are merely quietly conforming to the majority instead of finding and enjoying the spiritual companionship and conscious contact with God\u2019s people that we so desperately desire.
\nWhat if you were able to see behind all of the smiling faces and understand that you aren\u2019t the only one in the building who struggles? What if you found out that those of the majority are actually just like you and afraid to admit it also?
\nThe local congregation of the Lord\u2019s Church should be the most comforting place to walk into bearing our burdens and struggles, knowing that we will have access to the help of God\u2019s children if we will humble ourselves and ask (James 5:16). But for whatever reason, we believe that the best thing to do is not burden someone else with our problems and to act like all is well so no one will look at us as if we are different.
\nThe truth is we all have flaws, we all need support, and we are different. What makes the Lord\u2019s church unique is that we have been called out of the\u00a0darkness and placed in His marvelous light (1 Peter 2:9). Learning how to walk in the light and grow in Christ is so important for those of us who are struggling. But we all need to be willing to take our masks off and see that the Lord has built His church, placing each of His children in it as He desires (1 Corinthians 12:18).
\nBecause of the baggage piled on by past sins, so many Christians feel alone and out of place and are unable to accept the future that the Lord has waiting for them. That is how the devil wants us to feel. If we were able to see the burdens that those next to us carry, we would be comforted knowing we aren\u2019t the only ones struggling on this journey Home.
\nVarious national surveys lead me to believe that there is a high likelihood that each of us is surrounded by individuals who feel like misfits as much as we do. Here are a few of the statistics:
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