Not Going To be a Christian

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Last week at the Catalyst Conference in Atlanta, speaker after speaker left me spent emotionally. At least three times after the session I just sat there almost unable to move because of the spiritual workout I just experienced. The challenges through the spoken word performed surgery on my soul and cut away the junk that we so often store up in our lives that just weights us down. Things that we classify as Christian but many times we can not see the heart of Jesus in them. Shane Claiborne the founder of “The Simple Way”, recalled a conversation that he had with a Christian friend. In that conversation his friend blurted out, “I’m not going to be a Christian anymore.” Shane quickly asked”Why?” and his friend replied, “I have given up Christianity to follow Jesus!” My internal response was “ouch!” because I could look at my life and see that many times I do things that I label as Christian but yet it is very difficult to see Jesus in my action. Like so many words, the word “Christian” for some in our culture, has become a negative term even though it was first given to a group of believers in Antioch that simply were following Jesus. The platform of Christ was that of love but many times when our culture looks at Christians all they can see is hate. Certain segments of our culture such as the gay community and the voices of pro-choice many times do not see Jesus in our response but simply hatred. With these issues and others we are looked at as being self righteous pointing an accusing finger. Even though I believe that the scripture is clear on these issues I also am reminded that “love covers a multitude of sin.” Unless we are willing to embrace those who live a life style that is contrary to scripture and love them we will never penetrate those segments of our culture with the hopes of transforming lives. We have made ourselves comfortable in the recliner we call Christianity and the needs of the people living right across the street are not being met. People all around us are broken, frustrated, hurting and our vision so many times is clouded because we are consumed on what is going on in our buildings that we do not see those who are suffering outside. I pray that we can put on the eyes of Jesus. The eyes that “when he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.” (Matthew 9:36 NIV) I still with great pride call myself a Christian but will be more passionate about keeping my eyes on the footprints of Jesus and walking in them. John said it best when he wrote, “Whoever claims to live in him must walk as Jesus did.” (1 John 2:6) We must love as Jesus did, we must forgive as Jesus did, We must feed the hungry as Jesus did, we must love sinners as Jesus did, we must walk as Jesus did.

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