by The preacher sounded a little frenzied today, just like he always sounds on Fridays!
On other days he is super calm but on Friday he preaches to his Muslim faithful as if they were deaf! It’s a little mosque really, and so you can imagine his voice at that frantic pitch on the microphone. It does not sound nice at all.
I smile to myself as I remember another chaotic scene that also happens frequently on Sundays. Instruments not tuned right turned on the highest pitch and microphones on the highest volumes. It reminds me of a neighborhood I moved to in the city when I got my first job.
Beside our flat was a church and directly opposite was a bar. It seemed to me that they were in competition. They both started their noisy activities on Friday night, one with an overnight prayer vigil and the other with overnight carousing. There was a slight reprieve on Saturday morning as they both went quiet for a few hours before the afternoon. Then there was choir practice on one side and partying on the other. Sunday was a full day affair!
Why are we so loud?
I’ve been thinking, why are we so loud? Why do we need to be so forceful and intrusive that we turn people off with the practice of our faith and why do we not show the same zeal for the rest of the week? Why is it that the two ‘largest’ monotheistic religions always seem to be at odds trying to outdo each other?
We happen to be blessed to live on the coastal shores of our lovely country Kenya. One thing I have intensely disliked witnessing is when adherents of the two paths decide to engage in open air debates. While I love a good debate, most of these exchanges are not done with the intention of teaching the public something about what they believe, but to embarrass each other as much as possible as each person tries to display their mastery of the two Holy books.
There is an urgent need to shout, for the signs of the times show that Jesus will not be long in coming. God does not want anyone to perish, but that all would be saved. However I want to suggest to you that our methods and motives for shouting are not really aligned to God’s. I opine that our shouting is mostly a cover up for our shortfall. It is as if we need to compensate for our own lack of living out our faith and working out our salvation with fear and trembling.
Jesus asked a poignant question at one point, ‘when the son of man comes, will he find faith?’
In these perilous times, there’s so much trouble that besieges the Christian both in the personal and public space. There seems to be no let up. If one is not intentional, especially in maintaining an active relationship with God through His Word, prayer and fellowship in all seasons, then following Christ becomes an act that happens from head knowledge rather than intimacy with Him.
” I opine that our shouting is mostly a cover up for our shortfall. It is as if we need to compensate for our own lack of living out our faith and working out our salvation with fear and trembling.”
Sometimes I’ve wondered, what if I asked the passionate praise and worshipper or prayer warrior after service, ‘Do you believe? Do you really believe? Do you believe when it is happening for you and when it is not? Do you believe He is father and He knows you and loves you? That He heals, provides, preserves and changes circumstances?’
It is easy for the journey of faith to become a routine performance out of obligation rather than from a place of joy. And because we have been sent as light, we tell others about Jesus because we have to. And we do it in a pushy way, as if we are saying, ‘whew! Thank God I got that done! You see God, I’ve told them about you. You can’t hold me accountable for their lives anymore and they can’t pretend they didn’t hear!’ The question is, can ‘they’ see the love, joy and peace of God in your own life? Can they testify of God’s presence in your walk? Or is your life and talk a study of contrasts?
Masking our unbelief
A wise person once said of character, ‘your actions speak so loud that I can’t hear what you are trying to tell me.’ Perhaps this best describes why we shout. We mask our unbelief, our compromised walk and our doubts with loud vexatious ways in the futile hope that others won’t see us as we really are. But they do see, and they repel a spoken faith that is at odds with how we really live.
Still though, there is need to shout. And I turn to the savior to find out how He shouted while still on this earth. First of all He shouted everyday not just one day of the week and He shouted everywhere. He knew that whether He was in the synagogue, the temple, the countryside or in a gentleman’s house, He was about His Father’s business. He did not have two faces, one for Sabbath day and the other days, He was the same Jesus with the lepers and blind men as He was with the Pharisees and Sadducees.
The second thing is that He shouted with love and genuine concern and care. And yet He was still able to do it with candor.
This got me thinking about a testimony our pastor has loved sharing over the years and has taught me so much about sharing the good news of our savior with the world. Early in his career, he had a young man who would always come very drunk to the place where they had set up fellowship. He would come and sit quietly by the side and sometimes he would fall asleep under the heavy intoxication of the traditional brew. Still he came and was never chased away. God was doing His work in this man’s life. Eventually God saved him and he now works as a pastor to his people in a remote part of this country. Whenever we have our annual anniversary, the church gets to invite all the pastors from the mission field to celebrate with us in the main church. I always shed a tear when he is called up on stage to be honored. In my heart I scream, ‘look what Love can do!’
I have learnt to shout in a different way. To show genuine concern for the people around me every day. As a person who works with young people, I easily make friends with them. There are four young men in my neighborhood who have taken to my husband and me as their friends. Though I pray for their salvation, I had often wondered how to share with them my faith. Then one day, the Holy Spirit impressed upon me to start asking them how I could pray for them and the concerns they have. I have since begun doing that with two of them. And I know that God is doing His work, even as I watch them traipse down their stairs in their crisp white robs when the muezzin calls for prayers every Friday.
This is a season when we are seeing louder church services, growing fundamentalism, hypocrisy among believers and an emphasis on bigger sanctuaries and opulence. We must as believers rise up to the challenge of shouting with urgency, but not through the microphone. Rather it must be through how we conduct our lives and how we live with others. And that is where the Holy Spirit works in us to produce the good fruit of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. These are such delightful fruits in a believer’s life that they are hard to ignore. And when they come near to see and taste the fruit of your life, it will not be difficult to share with them about the one who cultivates them in and through you!
(Matthew 24, 2 Peter 3:9, Galatians 5:22-23)
