Now
faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see. This is what the ancients were
commended for. Hebrews 11:1
I like Facebook—probably more than I
should. It’s the biggest time-suck in the known universe but it’s also a great
way to keep up on the lives of people I don’t get to see very often.
Unfortunately, I have had to come to terms with the fact that I will come
across some weird stuff as I am perusing Facebook catching up on
who’s-up-to-what. The never-ending
string of outlandish opinions, crazy-intense political views, unguarded sharing
of personal information, weird recipes; the frequent and illogical use of
vulgarity and strange religious posts intended to guilt us into professing our
love for Jesus never fail to amuse and at times astonish me.
Recently
I came across a series of posts that I found more disturbing than amusing. The
posts all ran along the same lines. The poster who always wishes to remain
anonymous will claim to have some information (but no documentation) that proves
that Christians are considered to be a top terrorist threat by the U.S
government. Honestly, I have no idea if
this claim is true or not; but I find the notion that someone in the U.S.
government thinks that Christians are a terrorist threat rather entertaining.
As someone who has spent a good part of my
adult life attempting to motivate Christians to action I can tell you for a
fact that Christians are a rather disorganized, fragmented and peaceful bunch.
Nothing is more challenging than getting a large number of Christians worked up
enough over something to take action.
There are at least 217 different Christian
denominations in America and the numbers are growing everyday—mostly because
Christians can’t agree on the essentials of doctrine, let alone on the
complexities of how to organize as a credible threat against the system. Besides,
most of the Christians I know are far
to busy making a living, paying their taxes, raising their families and serving
in their Churches to terrorize anybody.
It’s
not the posts themselves that bother me; there is not a whole lot I can do
about such things and I try not to worry about things I cannot control. It’s the
responses and comments regarding the posts that concerned me. Not all of the
responses were worrisome; a few were amusing. Here is a sample of some of those:
“Yay! We're finally #1!!!”
“Thank goodness the government is learning who the real bad guys
are”
“Something to think about tomorrow morning in church” (I’m assuming that this person plans to contemplate the content
of the post rather than their Pastor’s sermon)
The ones that concerned me went more like
these…
“Every day I read another story like this and feel very worried
that too many are not paying attention. We the people need to stop this
government”
“Somebody with some sense needs to straighten out this
STUPIDITY...DISCRIMINATION ON BASIS OF RELIGION IS ILLEGAL!!!”
“This is truly scary. Who is to help? What should we do this
government is not of the people by the people for the people. We must stop
this. Is there anyone put there listening or helping?”
The content of these
reactions didn’t bother me all that much. It is the sentiment behind the
content that concerned me. I sense two attitudes in these responses. The first
is fear: fear of losing our rights and privileges, fear of persecution and fear
of the future.
The fear is
troubling because as believers we are instructed to fear nothing and no one but
God (Luke 12:4). I believe that God wants us to deal with our fear because fear
is a squirrely, unstable emotion that can simultaneously paralyze us and drive
us to frenzied, faithless action.
When we walk in fear
we can easily be cowed into silence when we are given opportunities to speak
the truth or act on the behalf of the marginalized and less fortunate. Walking
in fear rather than faith often leads to emotional reaction instead of
thoughtful response. Unfettered emotional reaction nearly always leads to
foolish words and choices that cause irrevocable harm to everyone
involved.
Secondly, and much
more troubling, I sense a weirdly misplaced faith: faith in our “rights” as
American citizens, faith in our founding documents rather than God and His
coming Kingdom. This faith is unfortunate because there is little in this world
less stable and dependable than human government.
Faith is at its core
trusting that someone will come through on the promises that they have made. God
has promised that God’s people may at times suffer but will eventually be
victorious. Reading these posts has forced me to take a good hard look at my
own faith and where that faith ultimately lies. I too have been guilty of
becoming unsettled and fearful when I hear stories about government intrusion
and fundamental American rights being stripped away from law-abiding citizens.
I have come to
believe it is crucial that God’s people keep a sense of perspective in these
uncertain times. God is still God and we have to trust that He has a plan and
purpose for all of this absurdity. That kind of faithful trust is born from
exposure to God’s word (Romans 10:13) and obedience to God’s word. The more we
hear, the more we obey, and the more we obey, the more we believe. One aspect
of obedience is seeking the good of whatever culture we have been placed in.
Jeremiah was commanded to pen these words as his people were carried into exile
by an evil, corrupt government…
This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of
Israel, says to all those I carried into
exile from Jerusalem to Babylon: “Build houses and settle down; plant gardens
and eat what they produce. Marry
and have sons and daughters; find wives for your sons and give your daughters
in marriage, so that they too may have sons and daughters. Increase in number
there; do not decrease. Also,
seek the peace and prosperity of
the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper~
Jeremiah 29:4-7
These times are
uncertain and scary for people of faith. But uncertain times are also times of
great opportunity. We have before us the opportunity to show a culture what
real faith looks like by blessing others rather than fearing, or withdrawing
from society. In order to bless our culture we must involve ourselves in it,
remembering as we do that we live in a post-Christian culture.
Involving ourselves
in a post-Christian culture means thinking and operating like missionaries in
our communities. It means being strategic and careful to lovingly engage our
neighbors in conversations about faith and life. If we are going to engage our
culture we must be deliberate in how we raise our children, teaching and
training them to be people of both great faith and fearless action.
We must prayerfully
consider involving ourselves in the nuts and bolts of government by running for
public office and doing enough research on issues and candidates to ensure that
we are really voting for wise people. It is imperative that people of faith
learn to voice their views in a humble and caring way. And by far the most
important thing we can do for society in these corrupt times is to live
virtuously and uprightly as examples to prove that God’s way is truly the right
way. As we walk fearlessly in faith, God will walk with us.
Whatever
happens, conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ. Then,
whether I come and see you or only hear about you in my absence, I will know
that you stand firm in the one Spirit, striving together as one for the faith of the gospel~ Philippians 1:27
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