I have been a Christian for many years now. And over the years God has done some amazing things. But there was one thing that was hard to miss and that was the things that were wrong with the church. It has caused me much pain and even had caused me to leave Christianity at one point. It actually wasn't the only factor in my decision to do so but it certainly was a big contributor. The thing is though what I have found is that I saw some of the same issues with secular organizations that I joined and with non-Christians. A theme seemed to be there, and all the same problems arose.
Some people want to be loved by others. They feel they need the love of their father, mother, friends, spouse, girlfriend/boyfriend, their children, strangers, and even God. They go looking for love in all kinds of places from all kinds of people. But the truth is, the person who matters most to love you is you. You need your love more than anyone else's. As the saying goes, how can you love others unless you love yourself.
I once saw someone who I haven't seen in years and upon seeing them I asked them how they were doing? They replied that they are living the dream. Nowadays to say living the dream may mean the opposite while to others it is a reality.  To many people living the dream seems impossible though. And can you blame them? Their lives didn't go as planned and things are not going their way. But the fact remains that deep down in each of us lies dreams. Dreams to achieve incredible things. Dreams to be more than what others say we are.  People love to put limits on others and we even put limits on ourselves so many people never see the dream come true.
There are some people that can do extraordinary things, I have seen it. If you have an internet connection you can see it also. The internet and television are flooded with them.  While the bar is getting set higher and higher for people to make it with their gifts and talents, because of all the people out there who are gifted it is still important to do what you are gifted to do no matter who thinks it has value or not. Most of our talents and giftings are God-given and God wants to see us step out and use them to make the world a better place.  So, one can say it is each person's calling to use the gifts God gave them.
There are times when justice seems to prevail, times if your due a reward you get it.  But it's not always like that.  Sometimes life just isn't fair. The Bible says, "I have seen something else under the sun. The race is not to the swift or the battle to the strong, nor does food come to the wise or wealth to the brilliant, or favor to the learned; but time and chance happen to them all. Ecclesiastes 9:11 It says that that the fastest don't always win the race or the strongest the battle. This is true in so many situations. It shouldn't be that way though it should only be fair that they do win the race and the battle.  
I recently read an article about a pastor who said he was leaving Christianity because it didn't work for him.  The article was about how God didn't work in his marriage and how Christians were mean.  I think it also mentioned how God didn't seem to bless him with material things. While reading it I discovered that he was really upset that his congregation didn't approve of the affair he was having with a married woman.  While I can't relate to having affairs with married women I can relate to how sometimes it seems as if Christianity isn't working. 
I was listening to a radio program the other day while driving in my car and the pastor teaching said two main things.  He said salvation and regular church attendance go together and that Christians don't evangelize enough or share their faith. He claimed the average Christian has never led anyone to Christ.  First, I would like to say that you are not saved by attending a church.  Yes, if you are saved you should try attending a church but if you don't attend a church contrary to what the pastor says it does not mean you are not saved.  
I remember the early years of being born again. I was a Christian my whole life but didn't become born again till my early twenties.  In those early years people in the church and just many Christians in general were so discouraging and critical.  But God wasn't like them. God was always encouraging and for you.  If it wasn't for God being so encouraging and not like them I probably wouldn't have lasted in Christianity. If God was anything like other Christians acted I wouldn't have wanted anything to do with Him.
The other day I saw something from Jeremy Lopez (Jeremy is an awesome and anointed man of God by the way) on his ministry page, Identity Network that prompted me to write this article.  He said, "some people have a very real, continuous fear. "Is this the will of God?" "Is this the will of God or is this my will?" He goes on to say, people are religiously bound up by this.  I can concur with what he is saying and know it all too well.  I have even been there myself.  You want to be in Gods perfect will and plan, you naturally don't want to do anything that goes against that or is out of that.  God also desires us to be obedient and in His perfect plan, but we need to be careful we aren't being too religious and bound up by that.
Most people have goals and plans. Even from an early age some boys want to be firefighter's and some girls a nurse. Some goals take a lot of doing and others not so much but if we are productive people we have them. Christians especially have goals and plans after all they want to be world changers and touch people's lives. Our two most important goals should be to love God and love people. It's important that we don't get lost in all the striving after things in this world and forget that. Those two things, the whole law of God rests on, and are the two greatest commandments. So, we love but we do other things in our lives and make plans.