Though I do not make it a practice to make New Year’s resolutions, I am a staunch believer in making plans and setting goals for the future. One of the goals that I have set for the year of 2018 is to become more practical in my convictions and duties as a follower of Jesus Christ. Over the years, I have come or should I say matured to the place where I believe that preaching, teaching, quoting Scriptures, and such like are cheap, vain, and downright hypocritical when we fail to be doers of the Word. Unquestionably, our greatest example of one who put practice before preaching, serving before being served, and giving before receiving was none other than our Lord Himself (see Acts 1:1 and Philippians 2:5-8). As I have determined to walk in His steps, I have become more mindful of imitating His mercy, compassion, and willingness to forgive those who have wronged me.
During the Christmas season, my talk and desire to follow the Lamb withsoever He goeth was put to the test. I was made privy to a few hardship cases of people who had symbolically fallen among thieves. To be perfectly honest, I did not automatically or immediately come to their rescue as the Good Samaritan had done in the parable that Jesus shared in the scriptural narrative. Neither did I imitate the insensitivity of the priest and Levite who crossed over on the other side in order to avoid getting involved and showing compassion. Caught somewhere in the middle of these two extreme perspectives, I eventually reached out to help the people who were experiencing hardships to the best of my ability. I am not sharing this information with you in order to get a pat on the back. My primary reason for sharing this is to present you with an illustration of a real person who is fed up with religious folk who talk the talk, but refuse to walk the walk. Much of the ills and negatives in our culture and nation would be greatly alleviated and perhaps remedied completely if those who claim to be followers of Christ would simply practice what they preach. Imagine, if you can, that if we Christians would begin to take our call to be followers of Christ seriously, as we are instructed to do in the Bible, how our adherence to the Master’s teaching would impact and transform our culture and nation. Social, racial, and even political discord and diseases would begin to be eradicated and healed. If we who confess to be followers of Christ would put our call to follow Him above our ethnic pride, our religious prejudices, political persuasions, and cultural beliefs and traditions that make the Word of God of non-effect (see Mark 7:11-13), we would indeed be the healing balm that America so desperately needs and an unstoppable force to be reckoned with that the gates of hell would not be able to prevail against. I know that what I am asserting here may seem to be (to some) more theoretical than practical and therefore impossible to accomplish. However, this is not merely my opinion or perspective, but is rooted and grounded in the Scriptures and divine desire of the Master, Himself, who called us to be the light of the world and the salt of the earth. Whether we realize it or not, or accept or reject the assignment as Christians, we have been given the awesome charge and responsibility to represent Christ and to be His epistles to the world. This charge should be taken seriously by all of us who confess Christ and should transcend any and every thing that seeks to oppose and supersede our fidelity to Him.
Perhaps what I have declared may generate some disagreement and even disdain in some whose opinions or beliefs may not coincide with mine. I am not trying to win a debate or offend anyone. I have learned how to disagree with people, even when they are critical and hostile, without becoming disagreeable and personally offended. At the end of the day, what I am setting forth here is an echo of what the Master has already declared and is therefore set in stone and will be the standard that He will judge each of us by. As a dreamer, I wish that all believers would be as determined as I am about practicing what I am preaching. Wouldn’t it be an amazing thing if all the preachers, deacons, Sunday School teachers, choir members, ushers, and every church member would take what they were supposed to have been inspired by at church with them when they exited the doors on Sunday mornings? Oh, what a wonderful thing it would be if they would take it home with them, to work with them, to school with them, and with them everywhere they go! The results would be a drastic reduction of homeless people, an almost immediate elimination of bias and prejudice, a tolerance of those we morally disagree with, and malice toward none and charity for all who we (Christians) would disseminate. I am not naïve to believe that we will ever again see a widespread effect of Christian beliefs and influence in our culture to the extent that it will produce Utopia. I accept the fact that there are predicted judgements that we cannot alter and according to the Scriptures, the day of great apostasy and unrestrained evil is evidently upon us. In light of this, we are called to be children of the day and not of the night. If there was ever a time in this nation when we needed to be doers of the Word and practice what we are preaching, it is now.
About an hour ago, right before I finished this column, I was put to the test. It was around 8:30 p.m. and very cold outside. I pulled up to a certain convenience store that I frequently visit and got out of my vehicle to go inside. A strange man approached me with a real dilemma. He lived in Little Rock and had no way of getting home. Out of desperation, he asked me if I would be compassionate enough to take him home because he did not want to freeze to death in an endeavor to walk to Little Rock (that was more than five miles away). At first, I stalled and told him to ask someone else who was probably going that way. However, when no one would even consider doing that for him, I quickly consented to take him home being reminded by the voice of my conscience what my primary objective was for 2018. This situation I truly believe was orchestrated by the Lord to see if I am sincere about practicing what I preach.
