I had an interesting conversation with my husband today.  He will be thrilled to know that I have been “chewing” on what we talked about.  Something he said really, really stuck out to me.  It was this…”As Christians, we need to be more bold.”  Okay, okay, you’ve heard it all before.  I know I have.  I have been hearing sermons about this since I can remember.  But what if we step away from all our “Christianese” and “political correctness” for a minute and really think about that statement in a deep way?  I know that as a Christian, my heart sank last Tuesday when the results of the election were announced.  I was sad.  But not because a democrat was elected, but because it was a picture, to me, of our continued move away from God.  It has been happening in a slow and steady way for a few decades now.  But then as the week passed on, I began to have some revelation about it all.

There are many countries in this world who have nothing, which is where, I believe, we are headed.  Yet so many of the people of these nations are the happiest, most content people I have ever seen.  God has a way of stripping away what we are dependent on in order to recognize our need to be dependent on Him.  Let me say that another way…if we depend on our country, our government, our job, our family, our friends there is no place left for us to even see God.  I feel like He is allowing us to be stripped so that we will see our great, desperate need of Him.  It will no longer work to sit on the sidelines and be quiet about what we believe.  Our silence has placed us in this position and it is time for us to take full, complete and total responsibility for where we are.  I know I may be pushing some buttons here, but my husband pushed mine too (in a good way).

 We need to quit wasting time being offended and nursing our woundedness and get about the business of God.  The Bible speaks about the persecution of the church.  I believe we are there.  I’m not trying to scare anyone because I’m not scared.  I am opened up.  I feel uncluttered.  I feel clear.  I am choosing to look at myself and say these words to my own heart.  Pursue God, deeply, wholeheartedly, without hesitation so that when the time comes, we will know what to say, we will know what to do, we will know to be still.  Don’t get me wrong, we still need to pay attention to how we communicate with people and that we are always showing the grace and love of Jesus.  I will not waiver from that.  However, the time for wasting time on personal offenses and excuses is over.  Jesus is coming back.  I don’t know when, but I do know that He is.  This should not make us fearful! It should fill us with overwhelming joy! It should open up our eyes and show us that we have a profound OPPORTUNITY to change the direction of everything we come in contact with.    It’s time to stop being just Christians and start being pursuers of Christ!  There is a difference!