Enchiladas and Margaritas

Every Mexican restaurant should be judged on its Enchiladas and Margaritas.

Sure any kitchen can come up with one or two great dishes, but which restaurant kitchen can excel in these Mexican stalwarts? Who can take something as plain and basic as an enchilada and make it extraordinary?

Who can mix a margarita in perfect proportion? Who can make it sweet and salty and yet still let the tequila ring true?

As I sat there judging the restaurant against all other Mexican restaurants it hit me...

How are we judged as christians by the world?

I didn't judge the restaurant by how well the recipes were written, or by the bartenders knowledge of liquor. I judged it by its taste, its texture, its appearance, its smell. I used my senses to judge it. I experienced it.

Now when I think of the world and its opinion of Christianity it all makes sense. Many people who we have labeled as non-believers believe in much of what we do. They believe in sacrificing so that the poor and needy have more. They believe in loving other cultures. They believe in a greater good. But when they look at christians and they look at their own lives, they don't experience the same things.

They experience an other-worldly obsessed culture. One that doesn't really care how it lives on earth as long as it gets to live well on the other side of death.

They experience a group of people obsessed with writing, laws, knowledge, and belief which rarely acts on those ideas.

They experience judgement.

I couldn't help but notice the family sitting at the booth next to me. Every time the waiter walked away the father would remind him of their needs and give him more instructions. Then he would mumble about the waiter or "those hispanics" as he walked away. He was treated the man as something less than human. His waiter was not a father of four who was born in america struggling to raise his family as he knows best, even a christian possibly. His waiter was nothing better than a dog trained to serve his every need who he threw a few scraps too as he walked out the door.

How can we live this way? How can read scripture and study christ and live our lives this way? To me the message of Christ, more than anything else, is love. Love for everyone, but especially those who have not been given love, the oppressed and the poor.

This man in the booth next to me probably would identify himself as a Christian. Was I given an insight into the way the "nonbelievers" think today? I do not want to be identified in any way with what happened there. At the same time my identity is in christ, like theirs, and, I do make the same mistakes.

Is there a difference between me and that fellow? I am trying to not be him, but am I successful. Does the fact that I am trying make a difference? Christ talked about the heart behind our actions, but he also said we would be known by our actions.

I am sad for christianity. Can the wound we have given the world be healed?

Not if things continue the way they are. Change.