Some people in powerful places might not think your faith matters outside of Sunday worship or the confines of your home, but Christianity calls for a radical counter-cultural lifestyle that requires the active, public proclamation of your faith in God through your lived example. That means whether you are at home or in the office, at the gym or the grocery store, at school or on the freeway, your faith defines you. It not only affects what you do, but determines who you are.
What You Do vs. Who You Are
Who are you? The answer to this question is not your job title. It doesn’t take into account the letters after your name, or lack thereof. Our culture values a person more on their external physical appearance or material success, but these things don’t define you. Who you are is made up of many different things—your family environment, your upbringing, cultural and ethnic background, etc. But being a Christian takes precedence over all those things. It doesn’t rob you of who you are or take away any of your uniqueness. Your personality, your preferences, your peculiarities all remain. But being Christian gives you the special honor of being able to call yourself a child of God, a member of His family. That’s a pretty big deal.
As a Christian you are held to a different standard. You are expected more of. You are challenged to be like He whom you follow, He who has called you. You aren’t a Christian only on Sundays at church. You aren’t a Christian only around other Christians. You are Christian every single moment of every single day and that’s something that you should never forget. A son never ceases to be a son even when he has sons of his own. Even when his parents are dead and gone he is still a son. A Christian is once and for all a child of God and the way he lives his life is a direct result of this sonship that is awarded him in being a Christian.
The Christian may struggle to be the witness she is called to be, but her relationship with God causes her to be continually transformed and molded into the woman she was created to be. She lives her life with passion and purpose. She lives her life in conjunction with the guidelines given her by her Father. She knows she might not be the best daughter, but nevertheless she tries.
What Kind of Christian are You?
Sounds like a dumb question, but really think about it. These days Christians, especially Catholics, are expected to keep their faith private, bottled up inside them like it is something to be ashamed of. The media attacks Catholicism. The public laughs at the Church. Yet we remain after nearly 2000 years.
Take a journey back twenty centuries and ask the first Christians this same question: What kind of Christian are you? These people weren’t just Christian on Sundays at church, in fact, they didn’t even have a church to go to. These people were hunted down, tortured, and killed for being Christians. The were persecuted and martyred for what they believed, and more so by how they lived out what they believed—by the witness they gave to Jesus Christ.
So who are you? Are you a Christian? If so, does your faith in God define you and the way you live your life?