The Alternative
I can get pretty worked up imagining that the furthering of the kingdom of God depends on me.
How am I going to convince people of the existence of God? How will I share the gospel with everyone in my life? When will I ever find time to research every trending controversy and know the biblical stand on it?
If the kingdom of God depends on me, we’re doomed.
Can you relate?
For many years I clammed up when faced with opportunities to speak biblical truth to people who don’t know Jesus primarily for fear of getting into a debate and botching my part – blemishing God’s reputation rather than representing Him.
Until I realized the greater truth.
Convincing people is not my job. Getting people to choose Jesus is not my job. Winning debates and turning people around, again, not my job.
Here’s my job – be the alternative – the one informed by Scriptural truth and pointing toward Christ.
That’s it.
When a friend or coworker sits across from me, I don’t have to become emotional about convincing them they’re wrong about their life choices, opinions, or disinterest in the living God. I just have to speak what is true, from my perspective, so they are presented with a biblical alternative.
They can take it or leave it. They are free to disagree, be offended, think I’m clueless, or tell me I’m nuts. But, they’ve been offered an alternative and so has everyone else listening in. A biblical perspective has been spoken, presented thoughtfully and creatively or simply and unapologetically, but it’s out there.
That’s my job.
The rest is between the listener and the Holy Spirit.
The same holds true on social media, newspapers, the general marketplace of ideas – we are not called to take on the world and shift the cultural tide. We’re simply called to be (and speak) the alternative to the way the world has opted to go.
It can be discouraging – this whole business of being a voice for the Jesus’ perspective. It can feel futile, fruitless, and unproductive at times. The truth is (the biblical truth) this struggle will worsen the closer the world hurtles toward the end. Fewer and fewer people will respond to the truth of Christ.
But, we still are called to do our job – to be (and speak) the alternative.
Like in the days of Noah.
I imagine that early on in his life, Noah engaged passionately in conversations with his neighbors – investing great energy in trying to convince them of God’s ways. Through the years, as he was laboring over his boat, suffering through jeers and scorn, he probably faithfully continued to speak (and be) the alternative to his community’s spiraling behaviors.
People didn’t respond, but that was God’s concern and theirs. Noah’s concern was the person he chose to be and the words he chose to speak, right up to the moment when God closed the door of the ark.
It makes the whole business far less stressful – sticking to my part of the job and leaving the rest to God and the listeners. And, I’m more faithful to speak up now.
What would happen if all the Jesus-followers kept the truth to themselves because no one seemed to be listening? Then the rest of the world would not hear there is an alternative to the culture of death, they would have no understanding that life is found in Jesus.
Be and speak the alternative to the way the world thinks is right. Don’t be preachy or judgy or angry or heated or condemning or arrogant or apologetic. Be humble. Be loving. Be direct. Listen more than you speak, but do not remain silent.
The kingdom of God does not depend on us – it resides within us – it has come within our hearts – and so we are the alternative – the walking, living, speaking, loving, light-filled alternative to the dark.
Be what you are in Christ and then speak up. Some will hear and each one of those is worth bearing the hardness of the rest.
The Alternative https://t.co/kU2c4VLrzs #communications #Jesus #faith Why bother speaking when no one is listening?
— Lori Roeleveld (@lorisroeleveld) March 22, 2019
