why would I want to be like you?
Two follow up thoughts to my previous article.
I realize, of course, that the question I've been asking is the wrong question. Whether we live up to the ideals of the religion that we profess is ultimately a non-issue. What we "offer" when we evangelize is of little significance. What is much more important is what God is offering to the unbeliever through us. Whether or not our own lives measure up to the gospel matters only in so far as our lives indicate something about the nature of God's saving grace. However, as evangelists, we don't point to our own happiness, joy, health, etc. We point to Christ. If our lives had to be the perfect examples of Christian wholeness before we could feel confident enough to share the good news of Christ, we'd never get anywhere.
On the other hand, I still maintain that there ought to be tangible qualities of the Christian life that make it desirable. If we experience in our lives even a fraction of the obvious benefits of living a life with God through knowledge of Christ, the goodness from this allignment with God ought to be overflowing and evident. One of the spectacular benefits of knowing Christ is being able to come directly to God in prayer, knowing with certainty that God hears our prayers, cares about us, and answers our prayers. If I claim this as truth but then fail to have any sort of significant prayer life, what kind of a message does this send to my unbelieving friends? How can I tout around the fact that you need to accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior when I myself have such a hard time living that fact out in my daily life? It would be like someone who swore by Fords, insisted that I buy a Ford, but then kept his Mustang locked up in the garage while he drove a Honda around. It doesn' t make sense. I guess I'm getting at the issue of contagiousness. Anybody can be an evangelist, but what does it take to be the kind of Christian that when unbelievers see you, they want to drop what they believe about the world and about God and take up what you believe instead?
posted by Benjamin @ 5:57 PM
1 Comments:
Ben,
You seem to be fighting a battle on two different fronts here.
On the one front, you're concerned about being condescending: how do I tell someone that MY way of doing things is somehow better than theirs? I understand the dilemma. This seems to be a matter of HOW things are said rather than WHAT is said. Also, I think the analogy of medicine is helpful. I recently had a physical exam in which the doctor checked me out, up and down. He asked about diet, exercise, habits, and the like. Condescending? No. Concerned, knowing that it would benefit me in the long-run to ask such questions? Yes. Part of the difficulty in such an analogy is that doctors - by means of degrees, white lab coats, and social prestige - have a generally higher credibility than Christians or even pastors do.
The other front is that you're concerned about being hypocritical: how can I tell someone about the benefits of Christianity without enjoying them myself? Again, understandable. You wouldn't want your doctor to lecture you about the damage alcohol can do to your liver if she herself is an alcoholic. But let's just say that that was the case. Rather than having the physician continue in her ways and keep her mouth shut, wouldn't it be more fitting for a physician's colleague to say, "Perhaps you could be a more healthy person"?
That being said - and with the hope that I don't sound condescending - perhaps God is using this cognitive struggle to stir the coals of your fire for Him. Or perhaps He's using your struggle to stir the coals of one of your colleagues (one who happens to keep up with your blog and is now commenting for the first time) so that HIS spiritual life is enlivened. Something to think about...
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