Being ‘Christian’

A pastor I admire once said, “America is the hardest place in the world to be a Christian.”  I would probably replace ‘Christian’ with ‘true follower of Jesus’ because I think the word ‘Christian’ today has little to no real meaning…especially in America…a so-called ‘Christian’ nation.  It is interesting isn’t it…how some of the very things the ‘Christian right’ laments are the result of the the very things the ‘Christian right’ has neglected. I thank God that He is awakening many to the futility and outright idolatry of ‘mainstream American Christianity’ that treasures freedom, captialism, and comfort more than Jesus and that looks upon many in our city and our world with disdain and disgust rather than with the love and compassion of God that flows from a heart that truly recognizes the depth of his/her own rescue by the hand of God.

I say all this not as one who has ‘arrived’ but as one who is continually being confronted with my own duplicity.

Father God, continue to awaken us from our slumber before it’s too late…deliver us from the ‘American Dream’ and stir our hearts for Your Kingdom Come…all for the sake of Your own great Name!