8.11.13
What type of
people surrounds your daily life? The waiter and waitress at the restaurant on
your evenings out? The professor who instructs you during your lecture? The barista
who knows precisely how to make your perfect latte or cappuccino? How about
those people under the tents at the farmers market? Or the farmers themselves if
you live in a small town? There are hundreds of people you interact with
despite ever really having a conversation with them. So I propose a question:
Who is attending their deep spiritual need for a loving God who frees them from
sin and restores their life to what they are called to be in His will?
The past
eight chapters present the research of how Christianity is viewed from the
outside. And it’s not very pretty. And the answer that may come to the mind of
Christians seems real and practical. Easy even. But most of the time it is not.
Applying and living things out is much more difficult than speaking about how
to do something. Christians may think the answer to the perception of being
viewed as unChrisitan is simply for outsiders to better understand our faith.
But that’s not true. There’s an image problem for a reason. Because Christians
aren’t representing Christ. Christ followers need to become more faithful to a
God who has redeemed them and understanding His immeasurable power.
As
Christians we like to think that our efforts are driven by the right motives.
That we pursue God for more of God’s love and His will and purpose. But what if
our spiritual efforts are focused on maintaining equilibrium rather than
addressing the significant spiritual needs of others? What if we aren’t being that Christian? Well, why are you
seeking to be a certain type of person, or working towards a goal of being the
perfect, selfless person? Your work is futile in comparison to Gods work. We
too need the Lord as much as the outsiders. Upon close examination, my
spirituality is self-oriented, and yours too. We all have a selfish heart. So
expecting different from outsiders is wrong. We want outsiders to have some
sort of moral code upon talking to them. And if they don’t we push further away
out of fear. To rebuild our lives and restore the nations, we have to recover
the love, concern, and acceptance of others.
Jesus is
becoming harder and harder to see for outsiders in the efforts and language of
Christians. They are learning to disregard Christians largely due to the
negative impact that has happened from the Christians they do know. The unChristian
perception is real and this book presents the research. This should convict,
not condemn. The book reveals the problems that are at hand. However, there is
a God who is ahead of this. A God who is working in the mistakes that we make
in the interactions of outsiders. And he is active and working to restore all
things. We have the opportunity to be used in that plan as Christians. We
should be encouraged and moved to also take action. In prayer for those in our
daily life, for our own walk with God, in better understanding the Gospel and
how it applies. To pray for the Spirit to lead, and to be bold enough in the Gospel
to take risks. To take action in all areas of our spiritual walk so that we as
Christians have the tools to present Christ to outsiders and find relationships
with them so they can hear the truth and desire a loving God. Transformation doesn’t
happen overnight. But God is graceful and transformation happens.
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