I was encouraged after a conversation with someone today (thanks "Eternity") and decided to resurrect this old piece I'd written earlier this year. I think I need to remind myself every now and then what my faith is really all about. And if it sounds too preachy for you, I don't apologize for it. I'm only expressing my views and speaking from my personal experience. Please feel free to dispute, discuss, or add comments if you'd like. I'm always eager to discuss the topic.
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When I was in college, I realized for the first time what it meant to be a Christian and to be forgiven and free. Having grown up in a Christian home and in the church, you would think I learned this earlier in life. But it wasn�t until my sophomore year in college that my faith became my own. Not my parents. Not my relatives. Not my friends. I became a Christian of my own accord without someone telling me it was what I was supposed to believe in. Soon after I committed myself to Christ, I became actively involved in my school fellowship. I helped out with the praise band and was a small group leader for three years, an officer for two and eventually became president my senior year. The fellowship had become my family, and I depended on them for support and encouragement. But I had become so preoccupied organizing meetings, facilitating small groups, counseling members and attending all the fellowship events, that there was just no room for personal time with God. I would get to it when I could but the fellowship and the members always came first. But I thought He was pleased with me as long as I was serving him so faithfully.
Then it dawned on me. Somehow I stopped living for God and started living for people. Or maybe my problem was I�ve always lived to please people.
This is not what God wanted of me. He didn�t care whether I woke up every morning at 6:30 to make it to prayer meeting. He didn�t care that I spent 5 days of the week doing some type of activity for the fellowship. He didn�t care that I spent hours preparing for meetings and organizing functions. He didn�t care if people said I was a great Christian and an encouraging leader. It meant absolutely nothing to Him if I was doing it for everyone else but Him.
I think many Christians get stuck in this mentality of believing the more active we are in our Christian lives (i.e. involvement in church functions, prayer meetings, bible studies, etc.), the better Christians we are for it. The more people you preach to and the more you pray, the more you are rewarded and loved by God. The more extensive your Christian �resume� is, the more qualified you are to enter the kingdom of heaven. The stronger we can band together, the better we can ward off the temptations and the evils of this world. [Don�t get me wrong. Not all Christians are like this. It�s a very traditional way of thinking and fortunately I think many Christians today are breaking out of this mentality.]
How much further from the truth could we possibly be? Being a Christian has nothing to do with the things we do. It�s about God and what He�s done and does every day in our lives. And I believe all that God wants of those who believe in Him is to love Him back and be thankful. Of course these feelings of gratitude and love elicit actions such as prayer, praise and sharing with those around us. It works the same way as in any relationship. If you know someone loves and cares for you with all of their heart, you naturally respond to that love with kind gestures, signs of gratitude, and telling everyone about the wonderful things he/she did for you. You don�t just sit there without a response when someone expresses their love for you.
Something I hear often said about Christians as a whole that really bugs the heck out of me is that we�re judgmental and hypocritical. I was at a convention in December of 1999 and the main speaker (an African-American pastor from Texas) gave the best response to that. He had invited one of this neighbors to his church on a weekly basis. His neighbor would politely decline each time. But the pastor always invited him anyway and one day after the pastor�s invitation, his neighbor responded saying, �Pastor, you're a great guy and all, so please don't take this peronsonally. But I�m not interested in going to church. It�s full of nothing but hypocrites.� And the pastor�s response to that remark was just classic. He simply said, �Well . . . we�ve always got room for more.�
No one is perfect. Being a Christian doesn�t mean you�re perfect or that you�re better than anyone else. In fact, I think being a Christian makes me more aware of my inadequacies and failures. And only the good Lord knows how abundant those are. And He still loves me. How crazy is that? And ain't that what Christianity is all about? Saving grace, and it's a marvelous thing.
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