Duly chastened
Three times today (why do important things always come in three’s?) I heard or read the strong exhortation for Christians to live like Christians if they want to change the world.
Really.
It was three very separate times of the day, on three different media – first a radio show, then a TV interview, then an internet blog.
The radio show featured an author who converted from Islam to Christianity, and forcefully made the point that such conversion is not as impossible as Westerners think. What influences them? “Over 80 percent of this country is Christian” he said. “Live your Christian faith, live what you believe. That’s a good way to start.” It sounded like as much of an indictment as an encouragement, since so much of the Western world doesn’t behave or support a culture that acts like it holds Christian values.
The television interview featured an author of a book challenging Christianity to live up to what makes it great and true and holy. And I was riveted. The author asked the right questions, and he offered some good answers.
The blogger is a renowned entertainment expert and critic, a devout Christian with incisive wit and wisdom and crusty insight into Hollywood culture. She knows art and mastery of craft, and she wonders why pagans make better films than Christians. Ouch. She wonders why Christians have such a hard time making fine films of good stories well told.
These are exhortations. I take them seriously, and personally. I’m not pointing fingers, it’s up to me, for starters. And I’m going out on a limb and sharing this examination of conscience with you. How well are we doing? We have to be able to engage the culture right where they are, ask and answer the right questions, model sacrificial love, render the human complexities of agony and confusion and brokenness as purifications that promise healing and redemption. We have to be hope in a hopeless world.
It’s not all neat and clean and wrapped up to our satisfaction. It’s all gritty and coarse and rough out there. But that’s where true Christianity is needed and is most powerful, when it is not only lived….but lived well.
