When my house elf* married her Christian husband (many years ago) she became a Christian. As she was being counselled by the pastor's wife about Christianity her questions were not "Is Christianity true?" or "How do I know that God is real?" it was "What do Christians do?"
She explained "We Hindus get up in the morning and do puja before anything else, we burn incense and we don't eat beef - what do Christians do?"
Much of evangelism in Australia tends to be the more intellectual questions - Is Christianity true? What does the Bible say?
Maybe my house elf's questions are also reflected in the hearts of Australians too? Lots of people know what Christians DON'T do, but do they know what they DO do? Maybe our evangelism in Australia should also be directed towards answering the more practical question. How is my life, in a very practical sense, different (and better) as a Christian?
* My house elf is paid a decent wage, is not bound to the house, and is also not an elf.
2 comments:
I once asked a girl what she did on her college mission and she replied, "I don't like talking about DOING. I prefer just to BE" and walked away. I was annoyed at this wafty answer. I knew where she was coming from but I really wanted to know what type of practical things she actually did on mission.
A few years ago I asked myself that question, "How is my life any different from my NC peers" and it lead to me going to China and then enrolling in SMBC. I like being concrete and practical in our faith and really thinking through what we DO as Christians. Not so that we are slaves to these things are just about works, but rather so we can define ourselves in a more realistic, tangible sense to those who are genuinely interested.
Thanks for sharing about your house elf!
I also often want to know, in practical terms, what a person does. And when I was thinking about various career options (within my organisation here in India), I surprised myself by thinking more about what my daily life would look like, than the theoretical value of each choice.
What was interesting about my house elf, is that what Christians do was the ONLY think she was interested in! She's not very educated, so I guess she leaves the questions like "what is true?" to other knowledgeable people.
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