I Would if it was for Someone who I Really Cared About

My son, David went on a train for the first time a few days ago. He went BY HIMSELF! to London and traveled on the underground and Tracey and I were immensely proud of him.

My other son came with me to pick David up from the station in the evening and when I asked Stephen if he would have gone into London by himself his reply was extremely profound:

‘I would if it was for someone who I really cared about’.

Travelling on the London underground for the first time can feel fairly overwhelming and confusing. David was extremely nervous (as most people would be for the first time) about going, but he was motivated to overcome his fear because he wanted to see his friends.

Sometimes being a Christian is hard!

If we aim to honour and obey Jesus with who we are and the way we live then it will at some stage involve tough choices, ridicule and rejection.

When we are finding it hard to live the Christian life, what helps us?

At Orchard Baptist recently we have been thinking about how we can be more honest about out faith with the people around us. Some of the things that can hold us back from talking about our faith are embarrassment or a fear of rejection and unless we can overcome these things then we are going to struggle.

Many sermons on evangelism will tell us just to try harder and remind us that it is our duty to follow Jesus’ command to tell everyone about him. This is one way of trying to motivate people, but I think that my son has the best answer:

‘I would if it was for someone who I really cared about’.

The answer isn’t to just try harder to talk about our faith. The answer is to love Jesus more and to be open to talk about the reality that we experience as we love him.

We find it easy to talk about what we love.

I have a nephew who can’t stop taking about Manchester United. He hasn’t stopped this year because they have had a bad season. He can’t help but talk about them because he loves them.

I used to know someone who hated getting up in the morning but every weekend they were up at 6am ready to go to a car boot sale. When he wasn’t at a car boot sale he would talk about his experiences there and what he bought and sold. He was motivated to get up,  not by someone telling him to try harder but because he could do what he loved.

Living the Christian life is about loving Jesus so much that we want to live in a way that pleases him. This will involve trying harder, but  we do so out of love, not just duty.

When being a Christian feels hard remember the words of my son

‘I would if it was for someone who I really cared about’.