Monday, April 18, 2005

Being Consistent

I just had a wonderful conversation with a dear friend of mine. We talked about how it is so rare to find people who are transparent in all situations, with all people.

As Christians, we are called to live a life of consistency. This life calls us to love, to give grace, to walk humbly, to admit fault, to forgive, to pray in all circumstances as well as give thanks, etc... We are not to sit and point out the faults of everyone around us, while overlooking our own faults. We are not to put others down and insult them, but rather we should pray for them even if we don't get a long with or disagree with them, especially if we don't get a long with or disagree with them on different topics.

My friend and I were discussing how it is truly rare to find people who live as I described above, at least on a consistent level. Some people are transparent and "real" with their friends, but when it comes to church leadership, any type of authority, or non-Christians, the mask goes on and heaven forbid someone see the real side, the side that actually needs the saving grace, the freeing blood of our Savior, Jesus Christ.

It seems to me that we have become too comfortable in this world with all of the lies and deception that takes place on a daily basis that we feel it is okay for us, as Christians, to embrace this way of living in our own lives. We tend to get in this frame of mind that we have to "look" perfect from the outside. I ask "WHY?" If our job is to love others no matter what, why can't we love ourselves? How are we suppose to reach others if we are sending the message that to believe in Christ people must be perfect? We can't!!! This is the problem with "the church" today. We send people out to witness or even just to befriend people, yet it is through the motivation of making Christianity look as enticing as possible, even at the expense (unintentionally, in my opinion, but non-the-less at the expense) of allowing people to believe coming to Christ will rid them of all of their problems. When in reality, being a Christian is a daily struggle and most of the time complicates life even more because it is a total change of life and a total change in the way we think. It is a constant process of trying to live as Jesus did, with knowing that I will never succeed at being a perfect Christ follower, but always doing my very best to follow His example. In doing this consistently, that alone will attract people to Christ rather than provoke them to permanently engrain the words "hypocritical," "bible-thumpers," "fake," etc...in their minds whenever they hear the word "Christian."

Let's work together to be more consistent in our daily lives from eating breakfast every morning to loving people unconditionally to bring glory to our almighty, most holy God.

3 comments:

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Anonymous said...

That's a great story. Waiting for more. » »