What if...

"I think of the scandal of grace - freely received into our lives and then freely distributed to others. Jesus himself said this should be the mark of the Christian, and the single dynamic that would arrest the world's attention." -- Jim White as quoted in unChristian

Personal reflections after reading the book, unChristian.

What if... instead of picketing outside abortion clinics, yelling hateful things at the patients of these establishments, and gunning down doctors, we took the hand of one of these broken women, offered to drive her to weekly counseling, prepared a place for her around our dinner table and listened {truly listened} to her story until God's forgiveness through Jesus could make her whole again?

What if... instead of spending so much time lobbying against the lifestyles of homosexuals, we sat in a hospital room holding the hand of one of God's precious ones as they say good-bye to their beloved partner? What if we walked side-by-side, hand-in-hand at the next event to promote AIDS awareness? Because those are people dying - all over the world, including our neighbors, our friends {hopefully}, our aunts and uncles, brothers and sisters.

What if... instead of spoiling our children and ourselves rotten by purchasing every single thing they/we desire, we flew across the oceans or walked across the street and saved the life of an orphaned or unwanted child?

What if... instead of pronouncing judgment from our pedestal, we were willing to get down on our hands and knees to pick up the pieces of the broken lives of both fallen saints and sinners no matter how many times we might be cut in the process?

What if... instead of constantly meeting at the church house, we encouraged one another to live out our faith in the marketplace? What if instead of signing up for yet another Bible study, we signed up to serve food at the local homeless shelter, or deliver food to a shut-in, or sit with a forgotten one in the nursing home, or read a book to a neglected child, or help teach English to an immigrant {illegal or not}, or take phone calls from the desperate at a crisis pregnancy center or suicide hotline, etc.? We do NOT need more knowledge, we need to put our faith into action {see the book of James}.

What if... we let our light so shine before men, that they may see our good works and glorify our Father in heaven? {See Matthew 5:16}

What if... we stopped marketing Jesus and started loving Him? What if we stopped manipulating people to Christ and started loving them? What if we loved extravagantly and without abandon completely disregarding what it might cost us personally?

What if... instead of filling our lives with trinkets, we filled it with people?

What if... instead of pursuing personal comfort, we pursued - chased after, even - Christ?

What if... we spent our lives on behalf of the poor? {see Isaiah 58}

What if... we practiced pure religion? {see James 1:27}

What if... we found our Calcutta?

What if... we obeyed the commands of Christ?

What if... we lived what we profess to believe?

What if... we stopped pretending?

What if... we dared to be Christians?

What if...

May it be so.