I sat with a young woman recently and started what I thought was small talk, until she began to ask some hard questions.

She is viewing faith through a more adult lens. Her friends are asking about her faith. She grew up in church, and it’s been a part of her identity.

She wanted to know who Jesus is.

I wasn’t sure what she was asking, but I longed to. As we talked, I realized that her perspective of faith was very different from mine. I encountered Jesus in a small church in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The people who loved and discipled me were imperfect, but their message drew me to Jesus. They talked a lot about love. About faithfulness. Sometimes they threw in confusing things like what I wore, but for the most part they discipled me. They drove us all around town in an old bus on Sundays and we sang to the elderly. We spent time at the altar, praying, seeking God, seeking to know him. They helped me to see Jesus, and who I was to him.

My new young friend told me how her faith was a little more complex. Okay, a ton more complex. As an American Christian, her faith was sometimes tangled in politics. It was sometimes heated. Divisive. Some things were labeled as primary, but others, which seemed to be on God’s heart, were dismissed. Some people were on the “right” side. Others not. She wasn’t sure that she wanted to call herself Christian anymore, not if this is who Jesus was.

There’s a cost and we are paying it

I work really hard to be gentle and responsible with this beautiful community. To weigh my words, because the truth is I don’t have all the answers. But as a woman who loves Jesus, whose life was completely turned upside down in a beautiful way by Jesus, I wonder if we understand the cost of distorted faith. Even as I write these words, I think about that young girl and I want to weep. Her view of faith has been developed over the past 10 years, and if we step into her shoes, I think we’d be confused too, because. . .

There’s an “us versus them” mindset that puts me on one side and you on the other, yet Jesus said we’d do great things together.
There’s a fear that our world will crumble unless our side (whichever that is) wins, even though God said, “Be still, I will be exalted in the nations.”
We send missionaries across the world, but fear those same people when they walk 2000 miles with a child in their arms to find safety, even though Jesus said “when you give a cup of cold water in my name, you minister to me.”
We do whatever it takes to get our point across, forgetting that Jesus told us that the greatest tool we will ever have is love.

For God so loved the world that He gave His one and onlye Son, that everyone who believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through Him. John 3:16-17

This is Jesus

He’s the lifter of heads. He mends broken hearts. He goes into the hiways and byways to bring the lost, the broken, the hurting, the marginalized to healing and purpose. He’s a miracle worker. He’s an advocate for those who can’t fight for themselves. He’s a truth-teller and his harshest words were for the religious who sought power that had nothing to do with God. He’s not small. He’s not ruled or changed by who we place in leadership in one country. He sees the individuals behind the issues. He’s a Savior who longs to bring freedom to the whole world – and that freedom is about being known, about our sins being cleansed on a rugged cross, about knowing whose we are, and then taking that same freedom to others who long for it too.

I know there is an election coming up. It will be over before we know it, but the mark that we are leaving on this next generation will not. So, let’s remember these things as we show the world – our children, that young woman, our neighbors, on social media, and to our own heart – who Jesus is.

Fear isn’t a motivator toward Jesus, but confidence and trust in his character is. We will never draw a generation toward Jesus through despising others. Instead, love will break that door wide open as they see us tangibly walk into the margins and sit with those we may not understand, but who matter to Jesus. And we grow. We break out of man-made lines to truly get to know that person who sees things in a different way. We show up. We’re faithful, not to a creed or a party, but to simply follow Jesus, wherever he leads, whatever he asks, whatever miracle he longs to do in us or through us. Let’s show this next generation who Jesus is, who he truly is.

Just For You

Hey friend, thank you for being a part of the Living Free TogetHER community. I treasure you. I’ll be popping into your inbox twice a month and I’m so thankful you allow me to hang out with you. Sometimes I’ll share resources, or an upcoming TogetHER study, and sometimes we’ll just sit together and go deep. Here are some other ways we can connect!

More Than Small Talk podcast – Holley Gerth, Jennifer Watson, and I go a little deeper, live a little freer, and you are invited to the conversation.
Prayer Starters podcast – a 3-minute daily prayer starter so you can talk with God, right where you are.
My website – filled with freebies, resources, and more! If you have a question, send it to me. I’d love to hear your thoughts.

Let me know if you’re here for it. Hit reply and send me a 🙋🏽‍♀️. I’m so glad you’re here!

5 Comments

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- Lovelytony22 on November 19, 2025 at 9:40 am
  Thanks for this wonderful post. Jesus is everything we need. The Bible says in Colossians 1 that He holds everything together by his power. The Messiah is the Lord of Lord’s and King of Kings. In this crooked world, we all need him because he is the way, truth, and life.