I just finished reading a really interesting book by Francis Chan called "Crazy Love." (Sidenote: To see all the books I've read, am reading or plan to read, check out my Good Reads page. And if you have your own, add me!)
It's all about evaluating whether you are actually living your life in response to the "crazy love" that God has shown you. My favorite part of the book came in the forward written by Chris Tomlin.
He quoted a simple passage from the Bible, Acts 11:26. "The disciples were first called Christians at Antioch." But the way he went on to explain this passage was really striking to me.
The first disciples were called Christians. They did not call themselves that. They did not come up with the name. Other people--outsiders--looking at them called them Christians. How did they do that? By looking at their lives. So, obviously, this begs the question...today, if people were to look at your life, would they know that you were a Christian? Um....wow.The book goes on to ask the following series of questions.
Has your relationship with God actually changed the way you live?
Do you see evidence of God's kingdom in your life?
Are you choking that evidence out slowly by spending too much time, energy, money and thought on the things of this world?
Would your life look different if you suddenly stopped believing in God?
Jesus calls us to live our lives in a manner different from the world. And if we do it correctly, the difference should be obvious to non-believers. If I'm being honest with myself, I'm not sure that I'm succeeding at this. But fortunately, today is a new day. And I can try again. I can try to do better. I can try and live my life in a way that would make strangers call me a Christian.
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