Why claim it if we don’t mean it?

I don’t understand Christians who like to claim Jesus but never actually follow the things he calls on followers to do.

I don’t understand claiming to be for peace when we never actually practice it when it is most needed. As soon as we find ourselves in the slightest bit of tension or conflict, we automatically look to prepare ourselves for war, violence, might, and defense – anticipating that peace won’t actually be tried. We don’t even give peace a real opportunity. We just set it aside as soon as we can to get to the “real” solutions to any problem – anything that uses force to settle a dispute.

I don’t understand claiming to be for forgiveness when we never actually practice it when it is most needed. Heck, we really don’t even understand what forgiveness is. Maybe because we’ve never really experienced it in life. Or rather, because we don’t think we have. When we have, it’s been unusual and outside of the norm, so we don’t think it’s real forgiveness. We have a skewed version of what forgiveness is – some sort of weakness, or letting people get away with things.

I don’t understand claiming to be for grace and mercy when we never actually practice these things when they are needed most. Grace is getting what you don’t deserve. And mercy is not getting what you do deserve. But in practice we do the opposite.

I don’t understand claiming to be for loving our neighbors when we never actually practice it when it is needed most. Who are our neighbors – all people. Because all people are made in the image and likeness of God. And we are to love them. Maybe this is because like forgiveness, we think we look weak when we love. But that’s our problem and our skewed way of understanding love.

There are many things that I don’t understand. I don’t understand why we lean on violence so much. Has it really worked out all that well? I don’t understand why we invest so much of our time, talent, and energy into things like securing money, power, and control. None of these things are permanent, and as soon as we think we have them, they either control us, or someone else is trying to take them away from us. And the cycle continues.

The way of Jesus is opposite of all of this. Yet we think we can claim to value the ways of Jesus while not actually doing them and setting them aside when times get tough. Why is that? Do we think we are fooling anyone?