Skip to main content

Good Advertising

"In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven." ~ Matthew 5:16

    One of my pet peeves is people driving crazy on the highway. Their bad decisions could potentially put me in danger and prevent me from getting where I need to go. Most of the time, I don't know who they are and probably never will know. There have been times, however, where I may not know who the person is, but I know where they work because it's advertised on the side of their vehicle. Seeing the name of a business on the side or back of a vehicle driving dangerously or acting rudely towards other drivers makes me less likely to want to become a customer. 

    Recently this got me thinking about how I would act if I advertised that I am a Christian. Now, most of my friends and family already know I am a Christian, and most of them are as well. I do sometimes interact with those who aren't Christians, and during those times I need to be more aware of how I'm acting. When people who aren't Christians know that I am one, they are looking at me to see if I'm acting the way they perceive a Christian should act.

    Now, it's not always easy to determine who isn't a Christian. It's pretty obvious when a woman is wearing a hijab that she is a Muslim, but that is about the only outward symbol of a non-Christian religion I have seen. That means that I need to be acting Christ-like in every situation because I never know who might be watching me. 

    Admittedly, I don't always do this. When I'm not consciously considering my actions, it can be too easy to slip into some bad habits. This is especially true on social media. When someone says something that makes me mad, I feel obligated to respond, but my first response at that moment is often not what I should be saying, and has led to a few heated back-and-forth exchanges. I've found that it's much better for my sanity, and the preservation of my Christian witness, to just keep scrolling. I think we'd all be better off if we did that more often.

    Jesus has sent us out to be His light in our dark and hurting world. We need to let His light shine bright through us so that others know the truth of what a Christian should look like. We need to live every day as if our Christianity is on full display, because to Christ, it always is.

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Outside Looking In

(My post Life>Death  chronicles my struggle with suicidal depression. This story is based on the vision God used to save my life.) It all started after the knife sliced through my wrist. As I watched my life drain away, I felt a sense of peace. I knew my pain was finally over. Soft arms lifted me up and carried me off to Heaven. There I watched as my parents found my body. They started to cry, which I had expected. What I hadn't expected was what they were saying. "What did we do wrong?" they cried out. "Nothing!" I screamed. "You did nothing wrong!" But they couldn't hear me. What had I done? As my friends and other family members found out about my death, they said the same thing, and I continued screaming that it wasn't their fault. Their reactions caused me to be in agony, which struck me as strange. If indeed I was in Heaven, wasn't I supposed to be pain free? That is what I had always been taught. Then came my funeral. It...
2 comments
Read more

Scars in Heaven

 "The thought that makes me smile now Even as the tears fall down Is that the only scars in Heaven Are on the hands that hold you now." ~ " Scars in Heaven " - Casting Crowns     The sermon this past Sunday was about Jesus appearing to His disciples after the Resurrection, Thomas not being there, and his subsequent doubt. While this is a typical sermon topic for the Sunday after Easter, this time I started thinking about how this story relates to the song quoted above. What Thomas needed to see to believe in the Resurrection were the scars on Christ's body.     Revelation 21:4 states, "Death will be no more, mourning and crying and pain will be no more, for the first things have passed away." To me, that means that any limitations we had in our lives, including our scars, are gone once we enter those pearly gates. I know a woman who struggled with mobility problems her whole life, which required her to wear ugly orthopedic shoes. After she died earlier...
Post a Comment
Read more

Just a Girl

"And he came and said to her 'Greetings, favored one. The Lord is with you.'" - Luke 1:28 Last week we celebrated the birth of our Savior, and people around the world read about the miracle of His conception, the trip to Bethlehem, the shepherds, the angels, and the wise men. There are many characters in this wonderful story of our faith, but I want to focus on one in particular: His mother Mary. Of all of them, she was the first to know about what was about to take place, and the first to have to accept her part in the story. Most of the images depicting Mary show a lady in her mid-twenties at least, the age many would associate with someone engaged to be married. However, this is likely not the case. In that time, it was common for a girl to become betrothed when she was still in her early teens, often to a man who was much older and had already established a career. Jewish betrothal was as binding as a marriage, with the only difference being that the man had n...
Post a Comment
Read more