a change of "scenario"

Last night I went out with a few people-- half of whom I would have only considered as acquaintances, and the other half of whom I didn't even know before last night.  So why did I go?  I was only pretty good friends with two out of a group of about 20 people, so why?  I don't know, I was bored, I wanted an excuse to get out of the house, and it's always fun meeting new people and seeing old faces after a whole summer of being thousands of miles away from home, right?  ....... But countless times last night, when I talked with different people... they kept on asking me why I was there, saying things like, "This isn't your scene," or "This isn't a church function or anything, none of your church friends are here," and other stuff like that.

..... Uhhhhhhhh is that how people really see me?  As some kind of exclusive prude who doesn't hang out with anyone who doesn't go to church, or some kind of condescending goody-goody who thinks I'm all high and mighty because I think my moral standards are way above those of many of my peers?

Big. Huge. Sigh.  Dang, man.... I really don't want to be labeled like that.

But then I realize... there are reasons for the existence of that label in the first place.  Look around.  Look at all the Korean churches in the Atlanta area, and see that it's all the same.  We only hang out with other church members.  We hang out with them in our own schools during the week, we hang out with them at church during the weekends.  We hang out with them during our summer and winter breaks.  I mean, not that it's bad to hang out with church people-- that's not what I'm saying at all.  Accountability is good, pretty much necessary to have a fruitful spiritual life.  But what I'm trying to say is-- we claim that we follow Christ, yet when He commands us to love all people, we twist it to fit to our own desires and we love the people who are similar to us more than the ones who are a little different.  Shouldn't that love be equal, if not the other way around?

It's kind of sickening.  We need to get out of our little church bubbles and get out there and let people know we love them and love God at the same time.  There's nothing wrong with that. That's ministry.