A drowning sailor claws at the surface of the water, gasping, fearful, crying out for help. A life line is deployed and is within easy reach, but the sailor turns away, preferring to fight on his own. Exhausted, he slips into the hungry darkness of the ocean.
Starving, a man is escorted to a banquet table laden with food. With life-saving nutrition within easy reach, he willfully and apparently happily, wastes away, dying with a concentration-camp physique, skin a translucent covering over sharp bone.
A woman parched with thirst, faints in the desert heat rather than sip from the cool water in her hand.
A prisoner on death row chooses to stay in solitary confinement, turning down a President’s pardon.
A cancer victim turns away from a guaranteed cure.
Survivors (and I am in their midst) stand on the sidelines, aghast at the deathly choices of the masses.
Imagine an offer so amazing that to walk away would be damnable. Inexcusably crazy.
But this is what is happening every day. Every second.
Our generation chooses to die. Yes, they freely choose death over life. Hell over heaven. Pain over everlasting joy.
To me, this is nearly unbelievable, and it points to huge problems facing today’s church.
My search for an adequate simile pales in light of reality. Is the perception of Christ and his church, rather than the reality of Christ, responsible for this understated tragedy?
As a church, we hold a treasure of inestimable worth. We serve an indescribably powerful God who launched a loving rescue plan.
Yet the world looks on in revulsion. I’ll never join the ranks of those hypocrites. If that’s what being a Christian means, count me out! They scoff at our offer, joking their way into eternity. I’d rather be in hell with my friends…
The drowning sailor prefers to fight on his own. The starving and thirsty turn away from food and water. The prisoner willfully chooses to stay in his cell, wearing sunglasses of damnable delusion. Freedom is here, he thinks, within these walls.
Why?
I've got my theories, but I want to hear yours. I spent several hours in a mall asking non-christians why they were not Christians. The answers may surprise you. But what do you think? Why aren't unbelievers flocking to our doors because of the good news?
Comment below or e-mail me from my contact page.
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
Choosing death over life
Share this post:
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
6 Comments:
I think they truly don't see the difference in our lives that Christ makes. Sadly, He's not evident enough in our lives.
Add to this the reluctance to take personal responsibility for one's choices. People don't want to deal with the fact that God can be loving and just at the same time.
The media version of Christianity isn't even close to reality. People have chosen deception over reality. While it's easy to blame "the church"--us--for our failings, a universal condemnation of the church is hardly a reality.
Having said that, a number of so-called Christians are indistinguishable from the world in their habits and lifestyles, so there is no contrast to consider. Others are caricatures of the true humility and devotion which encompasses a real faith.
Most "Christians" do not live different from the rest of the world and offer only condemnation to anyone outside their holy circle. Jesus is, in fact, the opposite. He did live differently while on earth and offered forgiveness and love to everyone he encountered. The ones he most condemned were the "religious" people of his time. The church (not all but a large portion)often treats the "misfits" in our society as the lepers were treated in Jesus' time. Don't touch! Don't get involved! Stay away! Until we put aside personal bias and let the love of Jesus invade our being, and then live, speak, spend, eat, act and love differently, why would the rest of the world see anything special and long for rescue.
Have you read the book "Same Kind of Different As Me" by Ron Hall and Denver Moore? They answer this question in their amazing story. Offering rescue to a drowning person might first mean helping the drowning person understand they are valuable enough to be rescued.
I can't wait to hear how the people you asked this question in the mall responded.
I agree with what the other three ladies have said and would like to add that most people live in "the Christian bubble." They do not go out into the world and share the love of Christ with anybody. Nobody shared the Gospel with me for 42 years. How does that happen? I didn't even hear it in church as a child! After I became born again, I discovered all these people I had worked with throughout the years were "Christian". Or do they just think they are?
Too often in this modern society 'Christians' are characterized as pacifists who pray silently for divine intervention when they are confronted by evil. Too seldom do 'Christians' consider and emulate Christ throwing the money changers out of the temple.
In the 'Christian' world where all hope is left up to the divine intervention of the Messiah, it may seem easier and more expeditious (and preferable) to go on to a home that is without fear and pain and 'let the Lord' take care of the hard stuff than to return to a less than perfect world and struggle with the reality of evil. And a 'Christian' has the built-in world of Heaven that is ready and waiting and beckoning to him to "Come home."
For me, a Christian, I prefer to stay here and give the Lord a hand with the money changers.
Here is one to ponder; Do blind people see the 'bright light' as they approach death?
Post a Comment