Staying power...

I just finished reading an article about how 10 Taliban militants squirted acid in 15 girls and teachers faces on their way to school (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081125/ap_on_re_as/as_afghanistan). It was another reminder that there really is evil in the world. The Taliban doesn't like females being educated, so they squirted young girls with acid. It got me thinking about how we in the US have these systems set up to protect each others freedoms and so on and so on. And how we have these ideas of tolerance and such in our nation. As I was thinking about these things it just hit me, we have no staying power to live the lives that we talk about living in the USA.

We talk about living out lives of peace, love, tolerance, acceptance, etc. Yet at the same time we see all sorts of hateful things spewed around by the very people who say that they want to spread peace and love. Why is that? Well the Bible says that apart from Christ we are slaves to sin (John 8:31-36; Romans 6). We have no power on our own to conquer our anger, fears, and hates. So even though we may talk a good game, the power to live a life of love and acceptance simply is not within ourselves. We can only find it in Christ. This is the staying power that our country is missing. Wait though, there's more...

Now, I think its very nice that our country has decided that we should be tolerant of each other, but frankly, to those of us who know Christ, this is like telling a runner that he needs to learn to walk. Jesus Christ calls us far and above tolerating others. He calls us to love our neighbors and even to love our enemies and to pray for them (Matthew 5:44). And he doesn't even stop there, to make sure we fully understand what he is trying to communicate, he has told us to love our neighbors as much as we love ourselves (Matthew 19:19; 22:39; Mark 12:31,33; Luke 10:27; Romans 13:9). Wow. Simply tolerating someone is no where near what Christ calls his followers to do. Yet I think many of Jesus' followers are in the same boat as most Americans--we talk a good game, but we don't know how to actually do it.

The reality is that many Christians are missing the same thing that the rest of the USA is missing--abiding in Christ. John 15 makes it very clear that the Christian life must be lived through Christ. Apart from Him we can do nothing (John 15:5), but we can do all things through Christ (Philippians 4:13). The Bible paints a very strong contrast here--we are useless without Christ, but in him we can do anything--even love our enemy.

So here is where all these thoughts come to a head. We find that both Christians and Americans talk a good game. The USA wants tolerance, and the Christian wants love. We also find that Christians cannot live out their calling unless it is done in the power of Christ. No surprise then that the US cannot carry out its ideals apart from Christ either. What we as Christians need to do is share with our fellow man how to live out the ideals that the US is trying to teach. What a great opportunity for the gospel--an opportunity to witness about how we couldn't love without Christ and that Christ can probably help them to be more tolerant. The door is wide open. Instead of fighting against our nation's calls for tolerance, lets show them how to really live it out--and if they look to Christ to be more tolerant, odds are He will take them much further.