I am beginning to sympathize with atheists.
Not in belief -- no, never! A year in anatomy taught me that I have far too little faith for that.
But I am beginning to understand their persistent question: "What's the point?"
"Can't you live a worthwhile, fulfilling life without Christ?" they ask. "Why do you need Jesus to be happy? I'm perfectly happy without Him. Are you telling me that everything I do is pointless? Are you telling me I can't make the world a better place if I'm not a Christian? Why should I add Him to my life when I can benefit the world just as much on my own?"
"Well," we try to say, "you're not really happy. You just think you are."
Good try, but no one is going to buy that one. If I'm out on the weekend laughing and dancing with dozens of cool people; if I have awesome friends; if I laugh all the time; and you try to tell me I'm not really happy, I'm going to raise my eyebrows, write you off as a freak, and laugh at you later with my friends. It may be true, but try winning someone to Christ by telling them that their life is secretly miserable -- they just don't know it (poor souls!).
"But our sins are forgiven and we get to go to heaven when we die!" Great. Apart from the problem of making heaven sound appealing to someone who doesn't believe it exists, you might also try selling the idea of absolution of sins to a relativist. Let me know how that goes.
There are those drowning in the world. Those whose need is obvious, who are miserable, who are hungry for grace and meaning and life. I'm not talking about them (although their need is just as great). I'm talking about the happy atheist, the content agnostic. How do we win those who are tickled pink not to be won?
Here, I believe, is our problem: We are standing
shouting, "Want what I have!" but do not appear to have anything worth
having.
We proclaim divine and radical happiness -- more joy, more freedom, more life -- but don't actually appear to have more of anything. We aren't happier. We aren't freer. No wonder unbelievers question us -- we're no different from them. Actually, we're worse off, because we have to avoid all those things that are so "sinful" and "pagan" and miss out on all the fun that they get to experience. Who wants an ordinary life with the only difference being the things we aren't allowed to do as "good Christians"? Oh, and a strange belief that God became a human and died tacked on for good measure to establish our insanity.
Who in their right mind, being currently happy, would look any further into that?
Christians, this ought not be so!! Where are the Gladys Aylwards, with the power of Christ to stand in the middle of a prison and command the rioting inmates to cease? Where are the Hudson Taylors, standing up even while infected with the plague in the confidence that death would not come until his calling to China was fulfilled? Where are the Vibia Perpetuas, winning thousands to Christ by dying in the arena? And "I do not have time to tell about Gideon, Barak, Samuel and Jephthah, about David and Samuel and the prophets, who through faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice, and gained what was promised; who shut the mouths of lions, quenched the fury of the flames, and escaped the edge of the sword; whose weakness was turned to strength; and who became powerful in battle and routed armies."
Do our lives look like that? Because that, my friends, is what it is supposed to look like.
But we're too busy proclaiming "Christians aren't perfect, just redeemed" as an excuse to go on living sinful, self-indulgent lives with a great big "FORGIVEN" slapped across it; too busy running back to Jesus at night after running from Him in the day; too busy dealing with our own problems and vices and addictions and annoyances to experience true victory.
Have we stopped to realize that there is more to the Gospel than forgiveness? There is more to the Christian life than a few moral rules? There is more to loving Jesus than a ticket to heaven?
We aren't supposed to overcome sin because Jesus is a stick in the mud.
We're supposed to be rid of sin so that the very power of Christ can live within us.
We're supposed to be saved so that we're useful! He has promised us "newness of life," but we're looking an awful lot like the old life with a few new rules that we don't even follow all the time.
So.
What if we stopped trying to convince people of the joy of the Christian life, and actually lived it? If we're spending more time talking to our boyfriend or best friend than to Jesus Christ, we have no right to pontificate the benefits of having Jesus Christ as our self-proclaimed "Best Friend."
What if we got reacquainted with the Gospel? If we have boiled the Gospel down to "forgiveness of sins" and "heaven when you die," we've lost sight of the majority of the Gospel -- and have no right to try to be its representatives.
If our life is anything less than the very presence and power of God Himself, no one is ever going to see a difference. No one is ever going to want it. They may ask you why you don't sleep around, but they're not going to join you in that endeavor so that they can go to a place they don't believe in. They're just going to feel sorry for you.
But when suddenly our life has more -- when it starts exuding heavenly beauty, starts breathing heavenly life, starts wielding heavenly power -- that's when they'll notice. That's when it will make sense. When we look different, when we look like Jesus, when we look like we're supposed to, maybe -- just maybe -- they'll see something they don't have. And maybe they'll want it.
Yes, we are supposed to make disciples of all nations.
But first, let's remember what being a disciple actually means, and become that ourselves.
Let's have something worth having; something worth giving.
"Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me." | Philippians 3:12
