No Posers Please
My friend Doug Ehrgott works with a missions organization that focuses on Africa. As a result, he spends a lot of time there and meets some very interesting African people. On one of his journeys into a rather remote part of Africa, he met a tribal chief who had not yet been exposed to much of our modern culture. On that particular trip, a professional body builder was part of the team that Doug had brought with him. He told me and a few others about a humorous exchange between the chief and the body builder:
Chief (after staring for a while at the well-developed physique of the body builder): What do you do with all those muscles?
Body Builder (a little taken back by the question): What do I do with these muscles?
Chief: Yes, what do you do with all those muscles?
Body Builder: Well, I pose.
Chief: You pose?
Body Builder: Yes, that’s right. I pose.
And then at that point in his storytelling Doug inserted his own commentary, “That’s the American Church. We have all this wealth, all these muscles, and yet all we do is pose.” Ouch.
After thinking about it, I would narrow Doug’s statement a bit: That’s the typical American Christian. Most of us have so much wealth, so much muscle, so much Kingdom potential, and yet all most of us really do is pose. We look impressive. We clean up nicely and maybe even serve or give some money now and then. But when you look at our potential, when you look at the possible Kingdom muscle that God has given us, we’re really just playacting. We’re posing. And for that we are indeed going to answer to God.
