Show People Christ (and maybe keep your mouth shut while you do it)

You show me your redeemed life and I might be inclined to believe in your redeemer.
--Heine

I love this quote. I think it's so true. How can we expect logic and reason to persuade others to believe in Christ when we aren't showing any of His characteristics?

How can we expect to convince others of Christ's love when we don't love them ourselves? If we claim that Jesus changes us for the better, we had better be able to show evidence of that. It's a joke if we're walking around complaining, having no patience with others, having no compassion for others problems. And it seems to me, that a lot of us don't even care enough about others to talk to them. And this might be radical but what if we have a conversation with someone that isn't about Jesus? What if we let people talk to us so that we can get to know them. So we can learn how to love them.

I'm afraid we're losing opportunities to show Christ's love because we feel the need to give the Romans Road every time we talk to someone. How much would Christ's love show if we allowed ourselves to give of ourselves completely to connect with those who need love?

I'm just beginning to learn this. And it's taking a lot of effort from me to think about others, all of the time. I am realizing how selfish I am. I have a friend who is really hurting. Like, really hurting. Her life is just a mess in about every way it could be. And I couldn't shake the thought that I really needed to do something to show her that I loved her (really, to show her what the love of Christ is like; because I don't have this kind of love in me naturally). I dropped by her house with a large bouquet of flowers and a card. She started crying. I was so caught off guard. And it was a humble, desperate cry. I didn't know what to do, so I hugged her. I told her that I really appreciate our friendship. She really didn't say much and she had to get going to an appointment she had. So, that was it. But I really was glad I did it.

My friend knows about my faith. We've had several conversations where I've been able to tell her what I believe. She's never really had much to say about it. And I honestly think it didn't matter much to her.

But me showing up with flowers and a card just to tell her I love her really broke her. It went beyond the casual conversation. I think it let her know that I could see her broken life and I wasn't going to tell her what she was doing wrong. That's not my position. I wanted her to know that even when she's a wreck, I was there. She knows I try to live my life with "morals". She also knows that I'm not perfect.

I'm not sure what I'm saying. People who call themselves "Christians" can so easily get a "know it all" attitude. A "listen-to-me-and-do-what-I-say-because-I-know-and-you-don't" attitude. I don't like listening to people like that. It's not at all effective for me. And I can't imagine it would be effective for anything. It makes me wonder why we do what we do. Is it to serve? Or is it to make ourselves feel better than others? Why are we trying to strong-arm and intimidate people in the name of Christ?!

This is all just a part of my growing conflict with American Evangelism.