"When You Stop & Think About It" for July 22

(My weekly church newsletter column is entitled "When You Stop & Think About It." What follows is this week's article.)

Someone asked the little boy if he knew what the colors on the traffic light meant. He thought a moment and then said, “Yes I do!” Obviously basing his conclusions on what he had observed of his parents’ driving behavior, he said, “Red means stop, green means go, and yellow means go real fast!”

I wonder what our children conclude about the meaning of Christian discipleship if they base their conclusions on what they see in us. I also wonder what the people around us who don’t follow Jesus or who don’t go to church conclude about the meaning of Christian discipleship if they base their conclusions on what they seen in us.

Do they conclude that following Jesus means being selfless or being selfish?
Do they conclude that following Jesus means practicing forgiveness or harboring grudges?
Do they conclude that following Jesus means embracing diversity or nurturing prejudice?
Do they conclude that following Jesus means living in love or basking in hate?
Do they conclude that following Jesus means celebrating grace or wallowing in fear?
Do they conclude that following Jesus means building up or tearing down?
Do they conclude that following Jesus means holding on to hope or clinging to despair?
Do they conclude that following Jesus means developing trust or honing anxiety?
Do they conclude that following Jesus means worshiping faithfully or worshiping erratically?

It’s worth thinking about, isn’t it? The old saying maintains that “Your life is the only Bible that some people read.” But when you stop and think about it, the situation is actually much more serious than that. Given that the Church is the Body of Christ in the world, we can accurately say that “Our lives are the only Jesus that some people see.”

This following of Jesus that we do is an all the time, all of life, all of everything way of living. To do it well, we need lives that are infused constantly with grace, that are bathed constantly in prayer, that are attentive constantly to the presence of God, that are immersed constantly in Holy Scripture, and that are open constantly to other people.

My prayer and my hope as your pastor is that we will together, bit by bit, small step by small step, moment by moment, and day by day grow in our following of Jesus so that, when the folks “out there” see us and hear us, they will see Christ-like lives and will hear Christ-like words and will sense Christ-like motives.