The Christian You Don’t Know
She sees me several times a week. I know her views because she makes them known. I am myself with her.
Recently she confessed she used to hate Christians but she’s rethinking that. “I think all I knew before were headline Christians, movie Christians, and what my friends say about Christians. You’re not like them. I know we disagree but I don’t feel like you hate me. I’m starting to think I might have been wrong about Jesus people.”
Thank God. I thought. Thank you God for showing up and showing through all the cracks in my armor.
It made me wonder what people think we’re like on our knees. I wonder if they imagine a different prayer life than the one I have.
When I speak with God in the morning, I’m not asking Him to destroy the gay agenda or to wage war against those who made gay 
marriage legal. When I pray in the morning, I’m asking for strength to meet the challenges of the day, for a filling of the Holy Spirit, and for protection for my loved ones.
With my next prayerful breath, I’m not pleading for Him to boost the polls for the political candidate of my choice or to strike Obama with lightning. I’m pleading for wisdom to do my job and to interact with my loved ones. I’m requesting enough Christ-likeness not to hurt someone or screw up someone else’s life before lunch.
As I drive to work, I listen to His Word on CD and then to the headlines on talk radio. When I pray, I’m not calling fire and brimstone down on our enemies or asking God to oppose the heathen masses. I’m requesting the power to obey what I’ve heard from the Scripture passage and to not let what I heard from the headlines discourage me to the point of fear or depression. I’m mulling over, with Him, what His Word means to me, now, today.
By lunch, I thank Him for my food but also for patient coworkers. I’m not praying for them to vote the way I vote, I’m praying for healing for their husband’s cancer, a job for their son-in-law, reconciliation with their aging mother, and better ears with which to hear their heart needs. I ask for self-control to make healthy choices and healing from the morning’s stress.
Through the afternoon, my prayers are sentence brief. Forgive me for losing my cool. Please don’t let my car overheat in this traffic. Thank you for the good outcome with that family. Forgive me for that mean thought about that woman. What should I blog about next week? Heal my husband. Watch over my son. Thank you for my daughter. How will we pay that bill?
On the drive home, the issues scream out from the radio news and the callers. Then, I do pray about what’s going on in our culture. I cry out for wisdom. I ask God for patience with us as a people. I pray for the church to have strength and integrity, for creativity and imagination, for courage and compassion, for the Spirit’s power to speak truth and demonstrate love with people who differ from us. No fire. No brimstone. Barely the energy for anger. Lots of pleading. Lots of silent prayers where words fail.
During television and time on social media, I’m asking for strength to resist temptation. Thanking God for joy and laughter. Writing new stories in my head and asking for creative energy. Praying for grandchildren yet to be born that they will know God
from the cradle and grow up loving Him in a culture at odds with Him. Admiring other people’s artistic gifts.
When I lay me down to sleep, there are more prayers of confession, more gratitude, and more requests for those I love, family, friends, church, my town. No holy war prayers. No culture war intercessions. No hatred for enemies. I intercede for people near and far who don’t follow Jesus yet – individuals and people groups – for God to make Himself known to them. I thank God for His mercy and grace.
This is a day in my prayer life and I know so many other believers whose prayers are the same. We love the people in our lives, in our neighborhoods, in our country, across the world. We love people with whom we differ. We struggle with the great questions facing others. We don’t have it together – we need Jesus. Day-by-day. Moment-by-moment.
We are not the worst of us or the loudest of us or the caricatures of us or portrayals of us by those who misunderstand us. We are sinners saved by grace. Aware of our sinful bent. Grateful for a forgiving God. On fire for Him in a way that wants to include others in the joy of Him.
What did you think we were?
The Christian You Don’t Know – What you think we’re like – what we’re really like. http://t.co/wWrdo3t53b #amwriting #Christianstereotypes
— Lori Roeleveld (@lorisroeleveld) July 31, 2015
