I hate stereotypes

So this just came to mind today as I was hiking with some friends: I hate stereotypes.

A girl I hadn't talked to in 5 months asking me if I smoked weed because I hung out with people who other people thought did drugs...even though they don't. In fact they hate it as much as I do.

I love this group of friends. Me and my friend stayed up till 6:30am at a friends house talking and we talked about why our group is so awesome. One of her comments was "I think we're so tight because we're just honest with each other." That doesn't really mean we tell the truth 100% of the time, but more that we're honest to ourselves around each other. There's no faking, no masks there. It's just honesty at it's purest, "This is who I am, take it or leave it". And I love it.

I hate to admit it, but when I hang around with my Christian friends I feel like I have to put up a front sometimes. That if I'm just not really feeling very "spiritual" that I have to kind of fake that in order to fit in. But with this other group of friends (I'm not going to call them my non-Christians because some are believers, plus I don't think religion can label everything) I can just be aggravated and it's a big deal. If I'm having a tough day, then I act like I'm having a tough day. And most of the time someone will ask me about it and just through talking about it, I always feel better. Which brings me to what I said about this new group of friends, we care about each other.

Sure there are some people who rub other people the wrong way, but you know what we deal with it. We hang out with them there anyway. Which is more than I can say for some Christians that I know. When you go to a different church service just because someone in the first made you angry, that's called stupidity. When you don't talk to someone because they have a reputation of doing "bad" stuff, that's called being judgmental. On the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus teaches to "not judge, so you won't be judged" (Matt 7:1).

Plus, we care about other people, even outside of our group. I usually try not to judge people right away, or use what somebody else tells me to decide if I like a person or not. I like making my own opinions on people. Yet, people are so quick to judge other people by they wear, by how they talk, by what kind of music they listen. Sure, these things can help you get an idea of what a person is like, but as far as judging them as "Christians" and "non-Christians" it's absolutely ridiculous. I've met people that automatically thinks that because someone is wearing a V-neck shirt they're gay (btw, I own a couple v-necks...what now?!?!) and if they're wearing a "I Love Jesus" shirt (you know what I'm talking about) they're a Christian. To be honest, I've met people who wear "Christian" shirts (can shirts be labeled Christian? do they have a soul? are they going to heaven? hmm...) that don't act like Christians at all. In the same sermon, Jesus says that "You will know people by their fruits" (Matt 7:16), or actions. Sure, we all screw up sometimes. You get the picture I think. Now, even though we can usually tell by actions, no one knows for 100% but the person and God. Keep that in mind.

So I hit a lot of points today, but this is my main one: don't judge people by what people say. Not only is it unfair to the person, it's stupid.