So here is a question: if you could use no words, would folks suspect you were a follower of Christ?
You see, we what do is much more who we are than what we say is who we are. I remember my mother laughingly and seriously saying, "Do as I say and not as I do" when she was battling various unhealthy things like smoking cigarettes and over-eating. But I also know that as she made changes and new choices in her life, it spoke far more loudly into my life than any lecture or platitude ever did.
For those of us with a loved one involved in the legal system, incarcerated or darting into various dangerous life-style dangers, we have often talked ourselves hoarse trying to get the attention of a run-amok child of any age. So, if we keep doing what we are doing, how can we expect to get anything other than what we have got?
If, like me, you are a hollerer, speaking softly amid the din can surprisingly get attention in new and healthier ways. (For the most part, speaking softly does not raise my blood pressure....at least once I got the hang of it.) Adjusting cooking and eating choices or making serious choices to park the car at the far end of the parking lot can get folks we love thinking about their own health choices with much more power than pointing fingers. Choosing to forgive an old grudge can open doors to new ideas for folks who have rolled their eyes at our decades old anger.
I'm not opposed to you sending me a Facebook commentary (although flooding me can lead to me liking you but not following you) but I'm more interested in how you are worshiping, what volunteer activities you find worthwhile and if you would welcome me to come too, and whose work you sacrificially support financially. Because, much as I love you, your forwarded opinions are not as important to me as the things you do and choose not to do, and if you welcome me into your day-to-day life.
Consider what your life looks like and if it reflects what you believe in. Because, you see, we need doers in this world...prayers, workers, huggers, builders, kind-word speakers, serious seekers of truth that can be lived every day. Let me know where you are succeeding in those things. Ask me to pray for you, if you want. I'd be delighted to support development of your best self in any way you think might help.
Because, I see God in your face -- when you laugh, and love and strive and learn --
Because when you are lonely, hungry, angry, exhausted, ill, in prison, I remember God saying that how I treat you is how I treat God--
Because of who you are and because of what you do --
You bless me (and lots of other folks) every day!
But the Facebook rants, not so much. Instead, let's start a new Facebook trend...today let's share something wonderful in our own personal lives, something we did differently, something we need prayer for, something we need help doing, something important we are considering that might make a difference by doing it together!
Now that would be something new and exciting for the evening news.