Close your eyes for a second. Imagine running into an old friend at a grocery store. Maybe a college buddy or an old co-worker. They tell you how their life is and you tell them about yours. This person is glad to hear you're doing well and smiles genuinely. They proceed to tell you about a gathering they attend on a regular basis and ask that you join them some time. Maybe you're introverted or maybe you're just busy but the night of the gathering rolls around and you're feeling ballsy so you go. You enjoyed seeing that person a few days ago so you figure it's worth checking out.

You pull up to the building, park your car and walk in through the steel double doors. All of a sudden you feel like a fly on the wall as you observe the crowd you just walked in on. You begin looking for your friend only to find that the people around you are speaking a different language, slightly intertwined with English and your friend is no where to be found. You try, for the life of you, to understand what they're saying, only making out a few words like "we," "love", and "hello." You sit down and try to hear the sermon but it's like sitting through a Neuroscience class when you're an English major. As you can imagine, you would probably become easily frustrated.

The other day I was scrolling through Buzzfeed, aimlessly watching videos about grandmas shooting guns, kids giving their opinions on presidential candidates and Shaq disguising himself as a Lyft driver. Eventually I landed on a video called "People Guess What Christian Phrases Mean". Buzzfeed really should've called this video "People Try to Decipher Christian-ese and Are Painfully Confused."

What exactly constitutes "Christian-ese"? Here are a few examples.

1. "Where's your heart at?"

2. "Seasons"

3. "Where's the fruit?"

4. "Wanna get coffee?" (If I had a nickel for every coffee run I've had with someone, let's just say I probably wouldn't have student loans right now.)

Before I was born my family was all based in the heavily southern-Baptist-saturated state of Louisiana. When the early 90s rolled around they packed up and headed for Kansas City, Missouri (GO ROYALS). Needless to say, I grew up in the church. From day one I was in AWANA, VBS and youth groups up to my eyeballs. I did Christian dance camps, basketball camps, stay-away camps. Any type of Christian camp? You better believe I was there. I learned Christian-ese at an early age and thought it was just typical vernacular.

I graduated high school a year early and decided to drive 1,800 miles away to relocate to the quaint town of Redding, California to attend a small ministry school. After the ministry school ended, I took an internship at a local church and the year after that I decided to attend Simpson University, a private university to pursue a B.A.

What I'm trying to get at is this - I know a lot of Christian people and while it is incredibly important to have a solid group of Jesus-lovers in your corner and I am thankful for my corner of people, it also bothers me. Around Christians all my life, I developed the Christian-ese twang and my goal is to break that habit.

Don't get me wrong. I love Jesus. I talk to Him everyday. He keeps me steady and constantly reminds me of how powerful unconditional love is. I'm not trying to write this in a "I'm so much better and never use Christian-ese," point of view. I am definitely guilty of using this language and constantly have to check myself for it.

Watching that BuzzFeed video made me suddenly realize that not everyone speaks Christian-ese, therefore people who don't know Jesus probably don't know what the heck Christians are ever talking about. It's almost like an exclusive language has been built within the circle of Christianity to keep it exclusive, whether subconsciously built or not.

There is no prerequisite to receive unconditional love. People shouldn't have to feel as if they need a dictionary of Christian-ese words and phrases to be a part of this incredible love. The challenge I have given myself for the past few months has been to try and stray from these vague and mystical phrases. It's been harder than I anticipated but I have found that actively choosing to use different words has helped me to not hide behind the sometimes shallow Christian-ese words. It has helped me to become purposeful and inclusive when I talk to people and I'm challenging you to do the same. Drop the Christian-ese because in the end it's adding bricks to the wall between authentic love and the outside world- that wall doesn't need to be built up any longer. Let's start ripping that sucker down once and for all.