The "Jesus Trend"

Okay so in the 8th grade I went through this phase where I wore a ton of eyeliner and like y’all, I looked so rough. I would cake on this foundation that literally looked orange on my pale as the white sands in New Mexico skin. It’s not that I really liked wearing this much makeup or that I liked looking like a small tangerine, I just wanted to fit in, much like every other 13 year old girl. It was the trend at the time to wear makeup like this. Honestly, we all probably knew how awful we looked, but everyone was too scared to speak up so we let the trend fade out like most trends do and eventually we learned how to match foundation and wear less or no eyeliner.

I’ve noticed a new trend on the rise and I actually think it’s my least favorite trend that I’ve seen in my 18 years on this Earth. It’s the “Jesus Trend”.

“Lilly, what’s the ‘Jesus Trend’ and why do you not like it?” Wow I am so glad you asked!!

The “Jesus Trend” or maybe you’ve seen it more as a “Christianity Trend”, it's this new rising thing where it’s become the cool thing or whatever to be a Christian, to post you favorite Bible verses and get the cute “Jesus and Coffee” stickers and shirts.

Now, don’t get me wrong y’all, I have a favorite Bible verse that I tell everyone and a friend gave me a cute “Jesus and Coffee” sticker that’s on my laptop. I am all about cutesy stuff like that, where my problem comes from is assuming that we can fit the creator of the universe and the man who died to wash clean the sins of every man into a tiny box that we call a trend. It’s assuming that the love of God and the power and beauty of Jesus Christ is temporary enough to be a passing trend. It’s belittling our Father in order to make your instagram bio look aesthetically pleasing with the last verse you saw on pinterest.

Now some of you may feel called out or feel slightly offended, but please keep reading. I don’t mean to be offensive, I only mean to be straightforward. So stick around.

My mom gave me a bracelet when I was like 10 or something that had 1 Corinthians 13:13 written on it which reads, “And now these three remain: Faith, Hope and Love. But the greatest of these is love.”

The first time I saw that verse on my bracelet, I wore it because my mom gave it to me and because it was a pretty little bracelet. It was the first verse I memorized. This became my life verse after I really gave my life over to God nearly two years ago in a pool. In this first letter of Paul to the Corinthians, he talks about a lot of things. Probably the most well known verse of this book comes from the beginning of chapter 13, “Love is patient, love is kind…”. After Paul describes everything that love should be he declares that out of the faith, hope and love that we each have, love is the most important. This means love between each other and love towards God.

Y’all, let me spill some truth tea on you for a second- God does not need you, he never has needed you and he never will need you. He is almighty and the all knowing creator, he does not need you or me or anyone else to accomplish his plans. Get this, he WANTS you. God wants you, He wants you to run into him, He wants you to cry on Him, He wants you to fall apart in Him. God wants you to love Him, because He loves you more than you could ever know.

Do you ever think about how much you mom loves you, because she carried you in her womb for 9 months and she felt you grow inside of her. You are half of her, she disciplines you because she loves you so much and she cries when she's alone because she wonders if she's doing it right. She does this all because she loves you more than you could ever know.

Yeah, God’s love for you is even greater. When God created the universe and everything in it, he thought of you, he thought of your life and how he would create you and destine you for amazing things. When you are alone and you begin questioning your whole life, God is the only things that can be right there with you. His heart breaks when yours does, because he created you. He created your lovely cooked teeth, he created your slightly frizzy hair, he created you knowing that you are human and you would sin more than you realize and he loves you so much anyways.

I am tired of the “Jesus Trend” because I am tired of people trying to fit my Jesus, my Lord and Savior into this small, human box. My Jesus is bigger, my Jesus is stronger and my Jesus will not be contained by what the world has tried to make Him into. God is bigger than your instagram bio, He’s bigger than your aesthetic looking Bible cover, He’s bigger than you can imagine. So stop trying to fit Him into what you can understand and let Him be everything that He is.

I challenge y’all to get your awe of Jesus back, sit back and really just bask in the beauty and the love and the vastness and the kindness of Jesus. Just sit in it, stop trying to shape it and sit in what God intended it to be.

Let's start a new kinda Jesus trend of a new generation, a generation so on fire and so in love with God that it overflows cities, states, countries and the whole world. Let’s let Jesus conquer everything we have ever thought and let him be everything seen and unseen.

Again, to clear some things up so no one is super offended: I think posting your bible verses and repping your favorite Jesus shirt is great! I am all about that! When you do that, just remember the awesomeness of the God you’re showing off!

Thank y’all so much for reading! In addition, I have my email up (please don’t judge it, I created the email when I was like 10) in the contact page of my blog. Please feel free to email me anything I can be praying for in your life!!

Thanks for reading and God bless, y’all!!

• Lil