An Unattractive God

Not too long ago, I was flipping through the TV stations and I came across a news story on the world's ugliest dog contest. I was simply amazed as to how one of God's creations could be so mirror-shattering ugly! Dogs with no hair, no teeth, ( or maybe just a little of both ). Dogs so fat they could hardly move and dogs so skinny a puff of wind could knock them over.
I found myself thinking that I might actually have to consider putting the dog down just as an act of mercy. I never would of course, but their ugliness certainly made it cross my mind.
I was struck by something as I watched the show. Even though the dogs were a bunch of one-eyed, toothless, butt-ugly, mangy curs, their owners loved them. They hugged and kissed the dogs and spoiled them unashamedly. Just because the dogs were ugly did not detract from the love they received. And the fact that you own an ugly dog should have no effect on how other people think of you. In fact, it takes a special kind of person to care for an animal as ugly as that.

Now to my point today. Why is it so hard to get people to even consider becoming a Christian? Here is Jesus, offering incomparable love, forgiveness of all sins, infinite grace and mercy, yet so many deny him everyday. Why? There is certainly more than just one reason, but I believe I have pinpointed a major one. Here it is

The reason that God is so unattractive is because he has ugly kids.

I'm not talking about being ugly physically, but ugly spiritually. I am mainly speaking of hypocrisy. Honestly, fellow Christ followers, why would anyone want to follow the Jesus we proclaim as Lord when we are consistently trampling our witness into the ground by our actions and our words? Just this past week, an acquaintance of mine, who is very vocal about his faith, was caught, yet again, in a lie and dishonorable behavior at his workplace. I spoke to one of his co-workers and his witness at work is totally destroyed. They are laughing at his faith. Now that's ugly, and it makes it all that much harder on those who are trying to bring people to Christ. Jesus has become very unattractive to those who witnessed that ugly behavior.
I need to stop right here and tell you that I can be pretty ugly myself at times. I know its hard and frustrating to always do the right thing, and sometimes we fail. But it seems as if we are failing on a more regular basis now.
It is important to tell the folks that have been affected by this "ugly" witness that the ugliness of the child is not necessarily a reflection of the parent. Those ugly dogs were loved greatly by their owner, and all of us ugly Christians are loved by our owner as well. As are those who have not accepted Him as of yet.
Fellow Christ-followers, we need to protect our witness by being more cognizant of our actions and to not be as ugly as we might have appeared in the past.
For those of you who might be considering following Jesus, please don't consider him unattractive because he has ugly kids. He loves us in spite of ourselves and that's the same wonderful, unending love he offers to you too.
Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going into my prayer closet and ask for another extreme makeover.

It's like Red Bull for the soul!