I was mid-sentence with a friend when the table became silent and all heads looked down. Completely oblivious to what was happening, my best friend tapped my leg and looked at the ground too. Like a slap of thunder I heard it–“Heavenly Father…” Loud and awkward… it was the mandatory Christian pre-dinner prayer!
“Thank you for…” it went on but I honestly could not tell you what else was prayed. “Does anyone ever actually listen to dinner prayers?” I asked myself. After all, everyone is starving and their minds are distracted by the aroma of the food they are about to shovel into their mouths.
“Is this really necessary?” “Could this possibly be blasphemy?” I thought to myself.
“Amen.” uttered nearly everyone at the table signaling that the barely audible prayer had ended. I was somewhat annoyed but more humiliated; not because I’m afraid of others knowing that I’m a Christian for I will shout that from the mountains! No, I was embarrassed because it is moments like these that remind me of my non-believing friends who so easily mocked Christians for their perceived cheesy outbursts of false gratitude to Christ over a meal.
One time I started to remark on the strangeness of Christian worship service (for example, when folks fling their hands up into the air in unison right when the music gets to that powerful line…where else does that happen?) when my young pastor said to me “our lives are not supposed to make sense to the world.”
Sure, believing a donkey and snake talked to humans…I can see that not making sense to world. However, I do not think that should mean Christians should act as cheesy and cliché as possible then, when they are mocked, claim persecution.
I’m sorry but I have a hard time believing that Christians who pray boisterously prior to a public meal are talking to God with a pure heart. But even if some are, I think it can still make you appear unapproachable.
Every believe should live a life that shows you are a committed Christian but praying loudly out of habit or chore is hardly living the life Jesus commanded. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 9, “For though I am free from all, I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win more of them. To the Jews I became as a Jew, in order to win Jews. To those under the law I became as one under the law (though not being myself under the law) that I might win those under the law. To those outside the law I became as one outside the law (not being outside the law of God but under the law of Christ) that I might win those outside the law. To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some. I do it all for the sake of the gospel, that I may share with them in its blessings.”
We should make ourselves more approachable. After all, the Gospel is not something we SHOULD tell but is good news we MUST share with as many as possible. Yet, according to survey after survey Christians do not share the Gospel. Many privately mutter that sharing their faith makes them “uncomfortable” yet many will sit in the middle of a crowded restaurant close their eyes, hold hands and claim to be praying in His name for cheeseburgers.
Does anyone else see the problem here?
How about we just be genuine and seek to know people and share the love of God with them?
to start a revolution 