SO YOU CALL YOURSELF A CHRISTIAN?

David Allen Brown

Lovenotes from Above: Breaking down the walls to Heaven

SO YOU CALL YOURSELF A CHRISTIAN


This is for those of us who take our Christian commitment to God seriously. Pride has no place in a Christian’s life, but humility will open doorways through which very few may enter.
“You’re an idiot,” she blurts out.
“Well so are you!” “There’s no way you’re going to get me to do that,” he shoots back.
“Well that’s because you are a selfish jerk!” she replies


Who’s really the jerk here? Yada, yada, yada. We’ve all been there before. Maybe not as bad as this, but then again, maybe worse. All of a sudden it hits you like a ton of bricks. It’s too late to undo the damage and it’s too late to take it back. Then you hear the inevitable comment: “So you call yourself a Christian, huh?”” Well if that’s what a Christian acts like, then I don’t want to be one!”


Not only have you not turned them onto God, you may have just put a wall up between that person and the possibility of their ever getting to know Him at all. She tells you she has Christian friends, and none of them act that way. She might even say that no one in her family is a Christian, but they all act better than you do.


Wow…and you can’t say a word, because she’s dead-on. She nailed you to the wall, and you can’t say a thing about it because she’s right. By now, you know that you have reached a turning point in your life.


You have always considered yourself a Christian. You spend a couple of minutes every night thanking God for the good things in your life and another 5 minutes asking him to bless you and your loved ones. You catch a church service here and there and watch someone on TV if you miss church…most of the time anyway. All of that Christian stuff, but now you’ve got your back to the wall, and you’re in trouble.


You could be defensive and spout off a little more, but that’s only going to get you in deeper. Hopefully, you have the presence of mind to think that far ahead so as to not dig your hole any deeper. No, it’s time to fess up. Answer wrong, and you’re a hypocrite. Answer honestly, and you’re expected to do something about it. You’re not sure you have it in you to change right now.


It’s time to ask yourself, “Am I a Christian?” Do I understand what this Christian thing is all about? It’s time to face some harsh truths about yourself. You are a Christian, but you sure don’t act like one at times. You put on a good show most of the time, but when it comes time for the rubber to meet the road, you are just a fair-weather Christian like the majority of other Christians out there. You go to church, and most of the time you drop whatever you happen to have in your pocket into the offering plate.


Don’t get me wrong. Going to church is a great thing, but if going to church once a week is all you are doing to do to become a better person, then you probably could use a little extra time in the Bible and get involved in the church with other more committed Christians. Don’t you think?


You may know just enough verses to get yourself in trouble if a real seasoned non-Christian starts to grill you. What’s the proper response when that happens? You don’t have a clue. You are sure the Bible says something about it somewhere, but at the moment, you don’t have any idea exactly what it says, and you sure don’t have any idea where to start looking. So you ramble off something lame, and now you sound dumber and more ignorant than you did 2 minutes earlier.

If we are serious about our Christian walk, and we want to mature as Christians, then I hope you have a little humility left in you, because your answer needs to be, “You’re right. I acted like a fool. I had a human moment. It’s no excuse, but I just acted like a child.” How many of us have what it takes to do that?