Tuesday, December 4, 2007

OUR Life Challenge, Are you up for it?

This blog started as a requirement for my Advanced Composition class. As I come to the end of the semester and complete my final assignment, I want to be honest, bold, and provocative. Provocative in the sense that I hope to, by the end of this blog posting, challenge you, as my reader, as well as myself, to change the way we live.

I am a Christian. What does this mean? Is it simply a label? No, not at all, it defines me. I have recently come to understand that being a Christian is a lifestyle. It is a lifestyle that contradicts the norm. Society is so focused on life being about one’s self. Christianity is others-focused, putting others before one’s self. As you are reading this, you may be thinking, “Duh, I’m a Christian, too. I know what that means.” But do you? I mean, do you really know all that this encompasses?

This past semester I have observed an increasing number of students claiming to be Christians, but their actions and attitudes fail to support that claim. You may disagree, but the high school that I attended was and is still filled with people like this, and I was one of them. College brought about the same kind of people. It was not until I arrived at college and joined Campus Crusade for Christ that I fully understood what living the Christian life is all about. I may not understand every detail of this life, but I know that God comes first, others come second, and I come last.

Recently, I wrote a research paper on why people reject Christianity, and I found substantial evidence leading to one answer: society. Movies, television shows, magazines all center around one individual- ourselves. Many Christians get caught up in this and cause others to turn away from Christianity because non-Christians witness a person claiming to be Christian participating in the same worldly activities as non-Christians but simply label themselves as “Christian”. This is a major reason why people reject Christianity.

I am stating these facts for a reason. STOP! Stop participating in activities that the world says is acceptable and start living the way you know you should. I am including myself in this challenge. Even though we may not drink to get drunk, cuss, or partake in pre-marital sex, does not mean that we do not sin. Gossiping, lying, not doing what we know we ought to do are all sins. Not loving others the way we are called to love them, not caring for others more than ourselves are sins that we easily fall into. Society encourages us to do something other than the right thing, but if we realize this, find a group of friends who support us and believe the same way we do, and actually live this out, society will be changed.

This may sound impossible or just too difficult, but it really is not. We must meditate on the things above (Colossians 3:2) and spend our time with people who do this, too, and help those in need, present the Gospel to the Lost, learn to love others as Christ does. This is not something that will happen overnight; it will take time. We cannot be perfect here on Earth, but we can try, and then ask forgiveness when we fall short.

I am only concerned with the way my fellow Christian brothers and sisters and I are living because we know better. I do not want to continue living an idle life, as Paul writes in 2 Thessalonians. He writes in chapter 3 verse 15, “Don’t think of them as enemies, but warn them as you would a brother or sister,” referring to those who refuse to do good works but continue to believe the truth. I am here warning you and myself to stop living an idle life. Let us perform the good deeds that are laid out for us. Find patient endurance and peace in the Lord and live as we know we ought.

I challenge you to post your comments, concerns, or suggestions regarding the things I have proposed in this post. Let us keep each other accountable, let us change the world, not for ourselves, but for God. Besides, this is what we are called to do; we owe Him our everything because He gave His only Son so that we can spend eternity in Heaven.

That is our reward for living the Christian life the way it was meant to be lived. Is your eternity worth a little self-sacrifice? I believe it is.

I will end with Ephesians 4:1- “Therefore I, a prisoner for serving the Lord, beg you to lead a life worthy of your calling, for you have been called by God.”

Examine your beliefs and then examine your lifestyle. Are you living a life worthy of your calling?