How do you stay a Christian? I too had such a crisis of faith as a young woman, breaking free of the fundamentalist evangelical upbringing in which I grew up. I knew instinctively it was not in line with the Christ I read in scripture. I found my way in my relationship with God by doing the work through study and discernment. It began and remained founded in Christ Himself.

How did Christ Himself tell us to be known as His? He commanded us to be known by our love for others.

What is the ONLY declarative statement in all the cannonized Bible of just what God is? That scripture is "God is love." It is followed by, "If you know love, you know God."

Study the Bible – don't just read the book. Search out scholarship on the book. I recommend starting with Dr. Mickey Efird (formerly Professor Emeritus of Duke Divinity) and Adam Hamilton. Read scripture and study scholarship with the discernment viewed through the lens of "Love one another" paired with "God is love, and if you know love you know God."

In the end, you stay a Christian by living your faith, to the best of your ability, as the image of God in the world. You've seen those examples in the likes of Alexandria Ocasio Cortez, John Lewis, Elijah Cummings, Jimmy Carter, Desmond Tutu, Martin Luther King Jr., and more. Take up that mantle in your corner of the world; if we make just our corner of the world better – our street, our school, our community – be the living image of God in every way with which you find the strength to do so.