An Inconvenient Christian

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By Kelsey Knobloch

Politics. Honestly I can’t stand the stuff. I know it’s very important, and plays a major part in the world around me, but I don’t really have a stomach for it. And yet there it is, filling up my Facebook news feed, clogging my Instagram, being blasted over the radio and tv. I’ve started just scrolling past it, but I’ll still catch a headline here or there, which is plenty for me.

Something else I see frequently when skimming social media is bible verses. Being a pastor’s son, I have plenty of pastor friends on Facebook and the like. Between that, Christian friends, and churches I follow, bible verses, inspirational quotes, or other “Jesus pictures” show up all the time. And, honestly, lately I’ve been scrolling past them as well.

In today’s world, being a Christian is becoming more and more inconvenient. Regardless of your political leaning, Christians have to find a way to reconcile what they want the country to look like with what God says our lives and actions should look like. It can be hard to balance what we want to do with what we should be doing according to God. It can be easy to push God to the side, to promise ourselves we’ll come back to him later, to not allow our faith to be a part of every aspect of our lives. If you’re reading this, I’m sure I don’t need to tell you how that’s wrong.

Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts.Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads.Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates. (Deut. 6:5-9)

God calls us to constantly be aware of his commandments, to constantly call on Him and remember Him. But not without purpose, certainly.

Call on me in the day of trouble;
    I will deliver you, and you will honor me. (Psalm 50:15)

Deliverance is certainly a great gift to have in exchange for…literally nothing. God doesn’t say “call on me in the day of trouble and follow all my laws” or “call on me and do this 12 step process” or “do these things and I might deliver you, maybe, if I feel like it.” No, our deliverance is guaranteed regardless of any action on our part.

This brings the Deuteronomy verse from above into an even better light. We are commanded to remember God’s commandments, to teach our children, write them in our homes and bind them to our heads. But why? Only so that we can remember to call on God. I’m not sure about you, but I can barely remember what I ate yesterday. The only way I’ll remember something as important as God’s eternal promise of salvation is to put it everywhere.

Jesus Christ rose from the dead not just to make some cameo appearance in our lives. We pray, as inconvenient as it may be, come Lord Jesus into the middle of our lives. – Pastor Bill Harmon

It’s inconvenient to have to reconcile our beliefs with everything we do. It’s inconvenient to be reminded that we should be living a better life, loving those that don’t deserve it, showing kindness where it is not shown to us.

In the politics surrounding us, it’s easy to say Jesus doesn’t matter, that marches of millions of people are more relevant, more real. To say that the situations we find ourselves in today will have more bearing on our lives than words in a book over 2000 years old. But I would argue that God’s message is more important now. It’s more relevant in such a turbulent time. The lessons in the Bible are more alive, more real, more pertinent to our lives than anything else. What’s more important than your eternal life?

Especially in a world as tumultuous as today, the inevitability of death is as real as it ever was. We need Jesus just as much as we ever did. We can let Jesus mold not only our actions and reactions to the situations around us, and we can also remember to call on him in our day of trouble. Jesus shouldn’t take a sideline in our lives, regardless of what else is going on. It may be inconvenient, but  it’s the best decision we can make. Don’t just scroll past. Read it. Repost it. Do it.