Some relatives are staying with my family and I for a few weeks, which has been pretty cool, as we don’t see them that often. However, it involved a of planning and scheduling from all of us. As we were comparing schedules and trying to plan outings/sightseeing together, I noticed that my family and I have a lot of church/“Christian” commitments during the week. I know, I work with a church and it’s to be expected, but after tabbing up everything in my family’s schedule and discussing availability with my relatives, I realized we have a lot of those kinds of commitments. That week was also unusually busy, so we (mostly I) had an elevated amount of “Christian things” going on. For example, I had two worship practices and got invited to a chapel service that week on top of my regular stuff.
I was feeling a little weird about it, because for the most part, my visiting relatives aren’t Christian (They know we’re Christian and they’re fine with it). I know we weren’t trying to passive aggressively push Christianity in their faces through our schedule, but I realized just how unusual we are. I know, everyone’s unique, but in that moment, I thought “Do they think we’re really weird? Do they think we’re religious fanatics?”
As I was mulling over how ridiculous it was to be weirded out by my family’s lifestyle in my own home, a line from Josh’s Siu’s testimony came to mind. He described his family, among other things, as “blatantly affectionate.”
It stuck with me because blatant often has a negative connotation, as it’s primary meaning is offensive, boisterous/clamourous, but it can also mean conspicuous, meaning easily seen or noticed. I was starting to think of my family’s lifestyle negatively as blatantly Christian, but I realized that, like being blatantly affectionate, it was a positive thing. Shouldn’t we want to have a lifestyle that reflects God in our lives?
It got me thinking, “How can we be blatantly Christian? How can we make it abundantly clear that we follow Christ in our lives?”
Gabe made some really good points from his message on Sunday, where he talked about the fear of man and how it affects our choices and decisions in life. It stood out to me because that was basically what was happening with me.
His solution to the fear of man was pretty solid as well: mature and grow in different areas in our walk with God, because as we do so, we gain confidence, and don’t fear what people think of us. It’s what helps us to be we the same person on a Sunday at 3pm as on a Monday at 10am.
And to answer the question “How can we be blatantly Christian?”, I don’t have an answer. There’s so many ways to show the world that we have a relationship with God, but they all involve putting ourselves out there and probably getting out of our comfort zone at some point, so we need to start dealing with the fear of man. If you’re not scared of people, you can do pretty much anything. You can be as bold and blatantly Christian as you want.
This is a work in progress for me and probably some of you, so I’d like to leave you with some encouragement from Psalms.
“I called on the Lord in distress; The Lord answered me and set me in a broad place. 6 The Lord is on my side; I will not fear. What can man do to me?”
Psalm 118:5-6