The Omaha-World Herald led with a touching story last week that dominated the front page.
It made me think of all the column inches printed about Christians objecting to various policies or cultural practices, all the e-alerts I receive trying to rally support for boycotts of Pepsi or McDonald's or whoever has most recently offended our Christian moral standards as well as objections to holiday greetings.
I think sometimes we can be on the right side of a debate, but get so caught up in it that we forget the real issue. There are many conversations that are good and right and necessary to have within the church and amongst Christians. We are to encourage and correct one another as we journey toward the promised land.
But we forget that we are but sojourners here, strangers in a strange land. We are not supposed to be known by our adherence to a checklist of Christian behaviors and the eloquence with which we defend those behaviors. Christ gave us a mark, the mark of love.
Mary Anaya fed the hungry and clothed the naked, all the while mothering 10 children, plus the one growing in her womb. But she died early Wednesday at age 42, leaving behind her family and a long record of loving her neighbor as herself.Just think of that. To live such a life that the paper notes your passing so boldly, so prominently and with an emphasis that here passed a woman with "a long record of loving her neighbor as herself."
It made me think of all the column inches printed about Christians objecting to various policies or cultural practices, all the e-alerts I receive trying to rally support for boycotts of Pepsi or McDonald's or whoever has most recently offended our Christian moral standards as well as objections to holiday greetings.
I think sometimes we can be on the right side of a debate, but get so caught up in it that we forget the real issue. There are many conversations that are good and right and necessary to have within the church and amongst Christians. We are to encourage and correct one another as we journey toward the promised land.
But we forget that we are but sojourners here, strangers in a strange land. We are not supposed to be known by our adherence to a checklist of Christian behaviors and the eloquence with which we defend those behaviors. Christ gave us a mark, the mark of love.
By this all shall know that you are My disciples, if you have love among one another. ~John 13:35Imagine if that really were synonymous with "Christian" in the hearts and minds of those we meet.
