What Real Christians Look Like

If you saw me at a music festival, you probably wouldn't think I was a Christian.

I'm covered in tattoos.

I wear black almost every day.

I listen to rap, rock, electronic dance music, and screamo.

I headbang.

I dance.

I sing.

I pump my fists in the air.

Sometimes I swear.

I play video games.

I love psychological thrillers.

I can walk into a room full of business owners, construction workers, recovering addicts, musicians, or people sitting at a bar, and feel completely at home.

And I love Jesus.

The reason I say that is because a lot of people have an image in their minds of what a Christian is supposed to look like.

Maybe it's the clean-cut guy in a button-up shirt.

Maybe it's the church volunteer who never misses a Sunday.

Maybe it's the person who only listens to worship music, only watches Christian movies, and only talks about church.

And before I go any further, I'm not saying there's anything wrong with those people.

Not at all.

Many of them love God deeply.

Many of them are incredible people.

But that's not the only way a Christian can look.

For some reason, we've confused Christianity with a personality type.

We've confused following Christ with fitting into a culture.

But when I read Scripture, I don't see Jesus creating copies of people.

I see Him transforming people.

God didn't make everyone the same.

He didn't create Peter, Paul, John, and David to all have identical personalities.

He worked through who they were.

And I think He still does the same thing today.

I love music.

Not just Christian music.

I love music that tells stories.

Music about overcoming adversity.

Music about transformation.

Music about struggle.

Music about confidence.

Music about getting back up after you've been knocked down.

That's one of the reasons I enjoy artists like NF, Vin Jay, and Neffex.

They're storytellers.

They talk about pain.

Growth.

Failure.

Perseverance.

Transformation.

And those themes resonate with me because transformation has been one of the biggest themes of my life.

I also love heavy music.

The kind of music that makes you want to move.

The kind of music that makes you feel alive.

The kind of music that reminds you there's still fire in your bones.

I love depth.

I love passion.

I love intensity.

And honestly, I've always been that way.

I'm expressive.

I feel things deeply.

When music comes on, I move.

I dance.

I sing.

I celebrate.

And if somebody saw me doing that from the outside, they might think I was crazy.

But the truth is, I'm just fully present.

I'm fully alive.

I spent too many years disconnected from myself to apologize for being passionate now.

The funny thing is that some people assume Christians are supposed to become less human.

Less emotional.

Less expressive.

Less themselves.

But my experience has been the exact opposite.

Following Christ hasn't made me less alive.

It's made me more alive.

I've become more aware.

More honest.

More present.

More connected.

More willing to feel joy.

More willing to feel grief.

More willing to engage with life instead of hiding from it.

I also enjoy movies.

I enjoy stories.

I enjoy art.

I enjoy conversations with people who disagree with me.

I enjoy being around people who don't think like I do.

Not because I want to argue with them.

But because I genuinely want to understand them.

And maybe that's the biggest thing I've learned.

Real Christianity isn't about creating distance between yourself and the world.

It's about learning how to walk through the world without losing yourself.

It's about loving people.

Listening to people.

Understanding people.

Meeting people where they are.

Jesus did that constantly.

He sat with people that religious culture avoided.

He listened to people.

He understood people.

He challenged people.

But first, He met them where they were.

So when people ask me what a Christian looks like, my answer is simple.

Sometimes they wear suits.

Sometimes they wear tattoos.

Sometimes they listen to worship music.

Sometimes they listen to rap.

Sometimes they're quiet.

Sometimes they're loud.

Sometimes they're polished.

Sometimes they're rough around the edges.

What matters isn't whether they fit a stereotype.

What matters is whether they're being transformed.

Because God isn't looking for copies.

He's looking for people willing to follow Him.

And those people don't all look the same.

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