What Beckons You?

16 Jan

“It ain’t what they call you, it’s what you answer to.”  ~ W.C. Fields

Do you know who usually fails us?  Do you know who usually lets us down?  Do you know who we often cannot count upon?  If you guessed “ourselves”, you win the big money today.  Yes, we are often our own worst enemy.

I believe that I have shared with you before my experiences as a prison chaplain.  We were told in our orientation that most of the prisoners would not even bother talking to us for at least six months because they were going to be too busy watching us to see if our actions matched our words.  They would be looking for interior motivations.  There would be looking to see how lax we might be with others.  They would be looking for weaknesses, for chinks in our armor.  Then, and only then, when they figured that they had assessed us, would they begin to interact.

We might invite people to trust us yet, at the same time, live a life in such a manner as to engender mistrust.  We might tell people that something has a high priority in our lives yet show, by our example, that is not so.  “It’s what you answer to”, W.C. Fields states.  If we answer to corruption, greed, or other types of sinfulness, we are not the believers that we claim to be.  If, on the other hand, we answer to truth, justice, loyalty, and love, we show ourselves to be true Christians.

We could ask people to call us Christian and we might even answer to that name.  If, interiorally, we are not Christian though, that will come out in the way we live our lives, in the words that we choose to speak, and in the witness that we give to others.

Please don’t do that to the Lord.  Don’t call yourself a follower if you are not because that is an insult to Him.  If you call yourself a follower, a believer, a Christian, you need to answer to truth and love rather than to darkness and sin.  Be a person of the light.  Be a person of love.  Let people know that you are a Christian not by claiming it but by living it.

FAITH ACTION:  Take time to assess your priorities.  It they are not consistent with the faith, do something to re-prioritize your life.