Preaching To You About Christian Behaviour
I attended a wake today. P's grandmother had passed away on Tuesday, and bunch of us went down to attend the wake.
We missed the Christian wake service as R had to work late. J picked us up from city hall and drove us down to Yio Chu Kang (not cemetary), where the wake was held among the landed properties. Both J and I were "lucky" enough to be at the same wake on both occasions.
While I was there, they asked me about the way how Christian conduct the funeral "rituals". Because the Christians, most of them P's aunties and uncles, were adament about a certain way the wake was to be run, such as the way the relatives have their meals after the cremation, requirement that all grandchildren give a eulogy during the service tonight, and insisted that all the grandchildren be pallbearers for the old lady.
Some stuffs are mostly logistics preferences, and I told them. But I think certain "practices" were done much for "religiousity" more than anything else. Apparently, most of them are from one of the biggest church in Singapore. Some cell group members of a member even wore "uniforms" to attend the wake.
At one point, J even told me that P regretted giving up the chance to speak to the microphone, cos she felt like saying "F*** the Christians!" Of course, I know she would say that in jest. She probably remembered that she still has a Christian friend, ie. me, and therefore gave up the thought.
I guess that's why P feels comfortable with me. The relatives at her grandmother's site are always pressing her for baptism (she confessed her sins before, but is never into the Christian things), or invite her to attend church service whenever they see her. I know that she always gets that kind of invitation, and seldom impose my invitations on her, because I know she will be irritated. And now with all those things I heard tonight, I ponder.
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Amongst the non-believers in the office, close group of friends, I stood out as a believer. Because I seldom do the things the Christians do when I am with them. And you know, some Christian behaviour can be really irritating. REALLY irritating, even to me.
And so, I chose to be a lifestyle testimony instead of doing the preaching to them. It's the only way I can win them over, at least, their view of Christians. I share my food, I clean up tables, I laugh off irresponsible comments made about me, and I give them the objective view, mostly positive, so that they can make choices that will not cause them to bring hurt, distress or trouble to themselves. And most of time, praise God, they do hear my perspective, and see things differently after sharing with me.
My rationale is this: Don't be a stumbling block to others, there are already too much damages done in the world. If we simply repeat the doings of non-believers to non-believers, what difference does it make?
The world scrutinises Christian behaviour more than any other religion. They constantly keep track of what we do wrong, more than what we do right. If we do anything wrong, our sentence is double then that of a non-believer. Why? Because we are Christians. "By right", we should be the goody-two-shoes, holy, pure, we-are-the-best-you-are-2nd-rate-if-you-do-not-believe. Christians are not allow to fall, because it crashes the preaching about godliness and the all-faith-talk-but-no-practical-action.
Sorry, I am a little frustrated here because I feel for my non-believer friends who kena "pressure" from Christians to go to church, cannot eat this, cannot go there kinda legalism and etc. They it hard for me to tell them about Christ, because they will go "Oh, I heard of it already..." And rattle off to describe to me the personality of the person, which most of the time, leaves me no ground to continue further.
I am not saying all this to pronouce, I art holy. I am not perfect either. Sometimes, I behave like a conniving Christian too. My objective of raising this issue out is to tell the Christians who are reading this that we really really need to listen more and talk less. At the end of the day, the choice is theirs. When the Holy Spirit touched them at the right time, they will hear us out, we don't have to FORCE it down their throat.
Really. Really.
We missed the Christian wake service as R had to work late. J picked us up from city hall and drove us down to Yio Chu Kang (not cemetary), where the wake was held among the landed properties. Both J and I were "lucky" enough to be at the same wake on both occasions.
While I was there, they asked me about the way how Christian conduct the funeral "rituals". Because the Christians, most of them P's aunties and uncles, were adament about a certain way the wake was to be run, such as the way the relatives have their meals after the cremation, requirement that all grandchildren give a eulogy during the service tonight, and insisted that all the grandchildren be pallbearers for the old lady.
Some stuffs are mostly logistics preferences, and I told them. But I think certain "practices" were done much for "religiousity" more than anything else. Apparently, most of them are from one of the biggest church in Singapore. Some cell group members of a member even wore "uniforms" to attend the wake.
At one point, J even told me that P regretted giving up the chance to speak to the microphone, cos she felt like saying "F*** the Christians!" Of course, I know she would say that in jest. She probably remembered that she still has a Christian friend, ie. me, and therefore gave up the thought.
I guess that's why P feels comfortable with me. The relatives at her grandmother's site are always pressing her for baptism (she confessed her sins before, but is never into the Christian things), or invite her to attend church service whenever they see her. I know that she always gets that kind of invitation, and seldom impose my invitations on her, because I know she will be irritated. And now with all those things I heard tonight, I ponder.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Amongst the non-believers in the office, close group of friends, I stood out as a believer. Because I seldom do the things the Christians do when I am with them. And you know, some Christian behaviour can be really irritating. REALLY irritating, even to me.
And so, I chose to be a lifestyle testimony instead of doing the preaching to them. It's the only way I can win them over, at least, their view of Christians. I share my food, I clean up tables, I laugh off irresponsible comments made about me, and I give them the objective view, mostly positive, so that they can make choices that will not cause them to bring hurt, distress or trouble to themselves. And most of time, praise God, they do hear my perspective, and see things differently after sharing with me.
My rationale is this: Don't be a stumbling block to others, there are already too much damages done in the world. If we simply repeat the doings of non-believers to non-believers, what difference does it make?
The world scrutinises Christian behaviour more than any other religion. They constantly keep track of what we do wrong, more than what we do right. If we do anything wrong, our sentence is double then that of a non-believer. Why? Because we are Christians. "By right", we should be the goody-two-shoes, holy, pure, we-are-the-best-you-are-2nd-rate-if-you-do-not-believe. Christians are not allow to fall, because it crashes the preaching about godliness and the all-faith-talk-but-no-practical-action.
Sorry, I am a little frustrated here because I feel for my non-believer friends who kena "pressure" from Christians to go to church, cannot eat this, cannot go there kinda legalism and etc. They it hard for me to tell them about Christ, because they will go "Oh, I heard of it already..." And rattle off to describe to me the personality of the person, which most of the time, leaves me no ground to continue further.
I am not saying all this to pronouce, I art holy. I am not perfect either. Sometimes, I behave like a conniving Christian too. My objective of raising this issue out is to tell the Christians who are reading this that we really really need to listen more and talk less. At the end of the day, the choice is theirs. When the Holy Spirit touched them at the right time, they will hear us out, we don't have to FORCE it down their throat.
Really. Really.
Labels: christian behaviour, stumbling block
2 Comments:
I couldn't agree with you more, you know.
I believe you remember this quote attributed to St. Augustine -
"Be a witness at all times, and if necessary, use words".
One more - "Christians aren't perfect, just forgiven".
Both bring to mind the fellows in U2, doing many great things for those less fortunate, slipping up here & there, but moving on, and setting a better example than so many other public figures.
That, & their awesome music, are why they are at the top of my list! (no kidding :) )
listen to...
Beautiful Day
p.s., I'm proud of you for the example you set - you had better rethink that "no-competition" mindset, as you have plenty of value :D
:D I know where I stand. I will let go at times, so that others who need the opportunity more than I do. But you know, many things cannot be compromised. That's when the human dilemma arise.
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