One of my biggest questions over the last little bit has been about what makes my life look different. I know that it is a common answer to say that your life has changed so much since Jesus came into it, and that is true. My question is, is my life so much different that everyone can see it?
One of Andy Stanley’s talks is about what would happen if every believer lived the way Jesus said to. If we did, he says that non-believers may not believe what we believe, but they would not be able say anything bad about us.
I have seen this over the past few weeks. On my way to preach at a local church, our team ran into two Mormons who are on their 2-year trip thing they do. Now let me be clear, I most definitely do not agree with Mormon theology. I do not think that anything should be added to the Bible as truth. I know God’s word is completely the gospel as is. That being said, however, the Mormons are great people. They believe something I never will, but they live lives that are attractive. They have come over and played cards at our place and have invited me to play basketball with them a few nights. They are fun to be around, they believe with a passion, and they point people to something better.
Another example is when I was doing door-to-door ministry. We were in a broken part of town. I mean really broken. There were service women on every corner. Drugs everywhere. People were just sitting in the street with cuts all on them with the saddest look on their faces. The whole place smelled like trash. Imagine the worst back alley that you have ever seen, and it was worse than that.
We made it to one door and I had given the good news of Jesus. (Well, the Holy Spirit did. I couldn’t come up with anything to say to these people. It was a “God, You are going to have and take over here” moment.) Then I heard a voice that was way too happy to be in this town.
The translator said that this woman was asking when we were going to speak to her. We saw a house with eight young moms with their kids in front of a shack. A really old lady in a wheel chair sat at the door. She may have been the happiest person I have ever seen. She just radiated joy.
I asked if she knew Jesus. That was a dumb question. I already knew she did. She giggled and told us to come in. We all couldn’t fit inside, but I could see that the house had at least 9 pictures of Jesus in one room. Her response to my questions was that she absolutely knew Him and wouldn’t be living if it wasn’t for Him.
She started to teach me more than I could have ever told her. She was different in every way. All I could think about is how I want my life to look like that. I mean not anything that she had to deal with. That would be terrible. But the joy in her was crazy. I could have never said a word to her and told you she had a life with Christ.
It made me think about what my life looks like to others. Not what I say. Or even what I do. Just life. If you saw me getting gas, or buying something from a store, would you know that I had a relationship with God?
I believe in having a vision of what you want your life to look like, and I think I have found mine. I want people to see me and think, “Man, his beliefs are crazy. That an old guy died for something called sin and came back to life? That is something that I don’t understand. But I can’t help seeing his life and wanting something that he has.”
You should tell people about God and what He did using words. You should also tell people about God and what He did not using words, but by the way you live.
