Life Lately - Living a Cross Shaped Life

Life lately has been... well it has been busy, but it also been a time of trials, unexpected surprises (of the good and not-so-good kind) and lots of prayerful soul searching. I don't have all the answers but I'm sure the Lord will reveal them to us in time. 

Anyway, enough about that for now. I've probably started this post five times. I never can find just the right words, so I figure if I'm ever going to publish it I'm just going to have to do the best I can and let the rest be. 

We live in the day of public information. We post about anything and everything all over social media. I can't remember who the first person I saw posting a picture of their food, but now that's the norm; you didn't have that meal unless you took a picture of it, right? Going to the gym, or out for a run is no different...

 

... What if we were more open about living a "cross shaped life" if we were more open about our Christianity. Imagine the difference we could make in the world. When did it become so important to not potentially offend someone that we stopped sharing our faith openly and publicly?

A couple of weeks ago our pastor was discussing the Protestant Reformation and the progression of Christianity in our country. He said something that has stuck with me, something that has haunted me since that Sunday. He discussed the fact that America is clearly not the Christian nation that we once were, that Christianity is steeply declining and that the country with the largest Christian population is China. CHINA. I just cannot fathom that, though I have no reason to doubt him. 

Once upon a time I was at dinner with some friends. I count these individuals among our close friends, I was discussing something that had happened in a recent Bible Study gathering and much to my shock I was laughed at. Not laughed at because of my faith, but because they didn't realize that people actually went to Bible Studies. They honest-to-goodness believed that the concept of Bible Studies were things that only crazy radicals attended. I couldn't believe that we were friends with someone who had never been to a Bible Study, and they couldn't believe that they're friends with someone "normal" who regularly attends Bible Studies. 

"So, because you are lukewarm - neither hot nor cold - I will spit you out of my mouth!

Revelation 3:16

Since that dinner a question that has been laid upon me (the night I first started pondering this post), am I living a cross shaped life or am I too much "of the world"?

Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is--his good, pleasing and perfect will.

Romans 12:2

Could someone from the outside identify me as a Christian based on my daily life? 

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I invite you to examine your own life and question these same things. As I look at my beautiful sleeping daughter, it breaks my heart to know that she is being raised in a world that is not friendly to Christians who live out their faith. I am fearful for the world she will face as an adult and what world my grandchildren will face.