Playing Christian

When my brother and I were younger, and when I say younger, I mean 20-25 years ago....we loved to get our toy trucks and tractors out and farm in the yard. We were too small to be out in the fields during haying season with the men, but there in the yard, we were all business! I'm not sure how many bare spots we made in the yard by pulling our "hay" up by the roots....that just provided us a spot for tilling later on. We had a perfect stump that was hollow where all the hay went. It was a nice setup. It's a shame it took the men so long in the fields. We could put up a whole stump full of hay in less than an hour. It usually took much less than an hour because something would easily distract us and we'd be off in another direction. Those were the good ol days. The pretend tractors, the "realistic" machine noises, the hand that suddenly turned into a grappling hook to unload a whole wagon of hay, the mach-10 speed of the vehicles, it was all real in our eyes. The imagination of a child knows little boundaries, does it? It's what we expect of our children, to play these pretend games. What adult would come and chastize us for such foolishness?

How many adults today are still playing those pretend games? As we grow older, we become quite adept at concealing our foolish actions. Just the other week, my 7 year-old and I were playing cops and robbers....I promise I was doing it just because he begged me to! What loving dad wouldn't? As an adult, I was getting absolutely no enjoyment out of it. OK, so I'll admit those nerf guns are still fun to shoot at a moving target even though I'm 30. No, the adult games I'm talking about are of a different sort. Adults are pretty polished in pretending to be something that may not represent who they really are, or for that matter, something that is not a reflection of the choices daily made. I worry that more and more "Christians" today are playing pretend. I see it in myself. When have I listened to someone and pretended to care, but was really wanting to get on with whatever I was doing? When have I told a lie and then found a reason to justify it? When did I lose control of my anger, but first made sure no one was around to see it? Widening the scope, there are Christians that attend church on Sunday, but justify a night of drinking..... that put a Scripture verse on their facebook page, but do not have one conversation with God in a given week.....that tithe regularly, and thus believe they can spend money on whatever indulgences they wish. In reality, none of these duties make us a Christian. It is the relationship with the Almighty God that defines us as a Christian. And it is the fruits of that relationship that will hopefully be evident in the life of a Christian. What fruits? God is patient, therefore I'm to be patient. God doesn't lose self-control, so I keep my mouth shut when the eldery person is going 25 in a 35 mph zone. God is faithful, so then I am faithful (jobs, spouses, loved ones, and of course to God). God is forgiving, so I, as well, am to be forgiving. Too many Christians want the benefits of Christianity without sacrificing the "stuff" of this world! They want to be saved and assured of Heaven, yet find that participating in the aforementioned "stuff" to be either of little consequence to their faith or of little consequence to others.
We are to be set apart, a holy people. Though we could choose to live as the rest of the world, we choose not to....we choose what is better. We shouldn't want to pretend, we should want to play the part for real! My brother and I could still get out those tractors, trucks, and wagons and "play" farm. Would look a little strange.... Anyways, we could. Or we could do that which is much more fulfilling and worthwhile. We could actually go out and farm! Drive a real tractor, put up real hay! Don't just play the part of a Christian....go out and really live it out! That's when life really gets to be fun. That's when life really becomes worthwhile. Well, that's when life becomes real.
God bless!