But this brings up a bigger issue. How often do we fake our faith? Maybe we haven't been lucky enough to be exposed for the fraud we are.
Soren Kierkegaard wrote:
Reading Kierkegaard's book has been a serious call to me to examine and make sure that my faith is real, that I'm not just putting on a show of Christian living and love.
Yes, there is a sense of shame, that is favorable to the Good. Woe to the man who casts it off! This sense of shame is a saving companion through life. Woe to the man that breaks with it! It is in the service of sanctification and true freedom...
...For this sense of shame intends to serve him better than the best friend. It will help him better than all human sympath which easily leads into double-mindedness - not into willing one thing. there is no question but what a man usually acts more intelligently, shows more strength, and to all appearances more self-contol, when under the scrutiny of others than when he believes himself to be unobserved. But the question is whther this intelligence, this strength, this self-control is real, or whther through the devotion of long-continued attention to it, it does not easily slip into the lie of simulation which kindles the unsteady blush of double-mindedness in his soul. Each one who is not more ashamed before himsel than before all others, if he is placed in difficulty and much tried in life, will in one way or another end by becoming the slave of men. For to be more ashamed in the presence of others than when alone, what else is this than to be more ashamed of seeming than of being? And turned about, should not a man be more ashamed of what he is than of what he seems?
There was a guy, who I respect and was probably just frustrated when he shared, in my father's adult Sunday school class at our church last week who shared the story that he was sick and tired of being worried about whether the person behind him in the grocery store would see that he is a Christian by his actions. He was sick of being worried if his actions were reflecting Christ wherever he went.
It seems to me that we shouldn't be too overly concerned about what people view our actions as. I think the guy is right and wrong at the same time [very post-modern of me :)]. None of us should be worried about the perception our life creates because of our following Christ. But if we are worried, then we need to quit being worried. We need to just focus on being who Christ wants us to be and leave all the cares of this world behind.
We need to be focused solely on being like Christ and doing what he wants us to do. When we get feelings like the man expressed in Sunday school class, that is a call for us to strengthen our relationship with God, not to give up on the loving actions. We need to desire only to love God. That's it. All else is vanity.
Watch out for the potholes.
