But that's often the tricky part, isn't it? Some people think we should separate the God-things (sacred) from the worldly-things (secular) in our lives. Or even that we should totally do away with anything in our lives that isn't specifically spiritual. Baloney! That sounds too much like making ourselves "so heavenly minded, we're no earthly good." How can we possibly affect the world around us, if we don't have anything to do with it? How do we expect anyone to listen to us, if we don't have a basic frame of reference to start from?
So how do we bring Christ into the things we do; into the situations we find ourselves in on a regular basis? I've been thinking about that a lot this week and I really don't have an answer for you. I think we each have to discover the way we can get Christ to "move into our neighborhood" (John 1:14 Msg) and become a regular part of our daily lives. Maybe I can place some conversation starting knick-knacks on my desk. Maybe it's as simple as just bringing Jesus up more often in my casual conversations.
Jesus isn't supposed to be this great secret we've found, that one day, others may get "in on." We're supposed to tell everyone this Good News that all the world needs to see clearly. The Message version says it like this:
You're here to be light, bringing out the God-colors in the world. God is not a secret to be kept. We're going public with this, as public as a city on a hill. - Matthew 5:14
I think the Christmas carol says it well: "Go tell it on the mountain!"
2 comments:
Hey Doug. How's Maine? Upper 70's/low 80's here in LA.
You got me thinking. Why the heck does Jesus feel like "this great secret...that one day, others may "get it on.""? That's exaclty how it feels when I'm trying to share with unsaved people! I hate it. I seems like we're almost conditioned to live that way- by our western culture, or worse...the western Chruch. (??)
I think it would feel a lot less like a secret if we as Christians were living more like Christ on a daily basis. Not just dressing up on Sundays and playing our part, but coming out of our Jesus closets and living alongside the unsaved like we were actually saved. I'm guilty of hiding my light under a dirty mop bucket lately. Fear of man, lack of self-confidence, mistaken identity in Christ. I struggle sometimes to hold out my candle with the fear that it might be blown out or snuffed out or that my wax might melt messing up the carpet. Maybe I need to start thinking of my light less like a candle and more like a mighty blow torch or like the imagery of a beacon in a lighthouse. If my light was shining brightly as it was meant to then it would be pretty hard to keep the secret. But that's just me.
Oh and Tom...It's a very chilly -37C (with the wind chill) up here north of the border - do you have to rub it in?
-Tara Ayer
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