God • Family • Country
Your faith shouldn't change depending on who's in the room.
It’s interesting how much we change ourselves depending on who we’re around.
There are things we’ll talk about for hours with our close friends that we’d never even bring up around someone we just met. We pretend not to care about things we’re actually passionate about, hold back parts of our personalities, and worry way too much about whether people think we’re weird.
And honestly, many of us do the same thing with our religion.
It’s easy to be open about our faith when we’re at church or surrounded by people who believe the same things. But at school, work, or just hanging out with friends who aren’t religious, it can feel a little different.
Suddenly, mentioning Jesus feels awkward. We hesitate to talk about church, and sometimes we avoid bringing up our beliefs altogether.
I can understand not making every conversation about religion. Nobody wants to feel like they’re being preached to all the time. But I also believe it’s worth asking ourselves why we’re sometimes so uncomfortable letting people know we’re Christian.
In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus tells His followers:
“Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid.” (Matthew 5:14)
I’ve always liked that verse because of how simple it is. Christ expects His followers to have an influence on the people around them, and that influence should be noticeable.
We all know someone who’s just genuinely enjoyable to be around. Someone who makes everyone feel included, remembers little things about people, and somehow makes even a pretty bad day a little better.
There’s almost a glow about certain people. You might not even be able to explain exactly what it is, but you notice when they’re around.
Imagine if the way we treated people made them genuinely curious about our beliefs. If someone could spend an afternoon with us and walk away with a better impression of Christianity, even if religion never came up.
In Matthew 5:16, Jesus says to let our light shine so that others can see our good works and glorify our Father in Heaven.
This is a strong standard to live by.
And realistically, most opportunities to do that aren’t going to be anything extraordinary. It’s noticing when someone’s being left out, not joining in when your friends start making fun of someone, or being willing to admit when you’re wrong.
That last one is especially important. Christians aren’t always going to get everything right, and pretending otherwise probably does more harm than good. Sometimes being a good example means owning up to a mistake and trying to do better.
Of course, living our faith also means being willing to talk about it. If someone asks why we believe in Jesus Christ, we shouldn’t feel like we need to dodge the question or downplay how important He is to us.
Being Christian should not make us feel like we have to hide our personalities either. You can be funny, outgoing, quiet, a little awkward, or anything in between. There’s room for all of that in following Christ.
I guess what I’m getting at is that our faith should be a natural part of who we are, regardless of who’s around.
I want people to enjoy being around me. I want them to feel comfortable, appreciated, and included. And if they eventually find out I’m Christian, I’d love for their reaction to be something like, “Yeah, that makes sense.”
Because if we really believe Jesus Christ changes lives, people should be able to notice some of that change in ours.
And maybe that’s one of the simplest ways we can let our light shine.