While reading an article on Christianity.com titled, "Are You a Christian?', I came across the question, "If you were arrested for being a Christian, would there be enough evidence to convict you?" and by evidence, I don't mean how many Bibles you own, or how many bumper stickers you might have on your car with Christian sayings on them. I mean hard evidence. If your family members, neighbors, and coworkers were interviewed and asked the question, "Is (your name here), in your opinion, a real Christian?" what would be their response?
Well, I thought about this for a minute, but in my mind, I came up with no clear answer. The reason for that is that when I think about who I am, and the way that I treat people, then yes, I would like to say that their response would be "Of course she is a Christian!" "She talks about God often, sharing the Good News, she helps people in need, and she goes to church regularly." But then I think about some other things that I do that may not be so "Christian Like", and then I'm not so sure of what they might say. Things like getting angry at other drivers on the road and speeding up to go around them, judging people who make poor choices like I haven't made poor choices myself, swearing, and not loving my actual neighbors who live right next door to me like I love myself because they frustrate me. So, am I a real Christian? Am I setting examples and living in a way that everybody that knows me can honestly say, "Yes, she is?" That I am not so sure of. Actually, I think that the answers would vary, depending on who you asked, and that is not something that I am proud of.
So, with that being said, let's make a conscious choice today to think about the examples that we are setting about being Christians, and what that really means. Are we being patient with others? Are we thinking before we speak? Are we taking the time to listen to others so that we can serve them in ways that are meaningful to their situations? And the hard one for me, Are we loving our neighbors as we love ourselves, or better yet, are we loving our neighbors the way that Jesus loves them? Now I know that none of these things are easy to do, but I think that if we make a conscious choice every day to be a better example of who God has called us to be, then we can most definitely do better today than we did yesterday, and each day after that!