It was Election Day for our local municipalities. As I drove into one of the local towns this morning, I was shocked to see election candidates, surrounded by their supporters, standing on busy street corners. Young children who should have been in school were jumping up and down with signs and propaganda. Men and women, young and old alike, sported the t-shirt of his or her particular candidate as they waved election slogans and screamed. One candidate even walked the street with his black lab, who he had also dressed up in his t-shirt.
Driving through these intersections was precarious. Cars honked from all sides, and because honking usually means danger, it put me on edge. As I tried to make a right turn out of a local gas station, a lady who was about my age made eye contact with me. She waved her banner directly in front of my car as she jumped up and down and shouted for me to vote for her candidate.
As I watched her, my mind went back a few weeks to another scene that I had witnessed in a state park nearby. There a lone man had also stood on a street corner waving a banner. His banner read:
“Jesus loves you”.
Why was he alone? Doesn’t Jesus deserve as many supporters as the lead candidate for Mayor in this town? Shouldn’t we, as Christians, all be excited for Jesus? I mean, we get excited at hockey games when our teams score, we go crazy when our football team goes to the Super Bowl, and we go wild at the World Cup games and the Olympics, but none of these things, including the best mayor in the world, can bring us what Jesus can! They cannot bring us comfort and support, provision or healing. They cannot bring us friendship or relationship, and they certainly do not bring us peace of heart and mind!
Think about it, friends! Did any of those sports players or election candidates die on a cross just for you?
It’s true that the lone man on the street wasn’t well received. Most cars ignored him. Except for the ones who lowered their windows to yell obscenities. But there was no question as to where his loyalties lay. He was on fire for Jesus, and it was apparent to everyone in that state park.
What about us? Do our neighbours even know we are belong to God’s family? What about our co-workers? Our bosses? Our teachers? Our patients? Our fellow students? And what about our friends? The people we play volleyball with? Our instructors at the health club?
Now I’m not saying we all have to stand on street corners and wave banners, but doesn’t the Bible say that Jesus is our strength, song, and our salvation? “Behold, God is my salvation, I will trust and not be afraid; ‘For Yah, the Lord, is my strength and song; He also has become my salvation.'” (Isa 12:2 NKJV) Shouldn’t we be just as on fire for Jesus? Shouldn’t our every action and word demonstrate where our loyalties lie? Shouldn’t we show just as much excitement?
It makes you think, doesn’t it? Jesus said to go and make disciples: “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit…” (Matt 28:19-20 NKJV). Where would we be with the great commission if we Christians showed even a fraction of the excitement and joy in knowing Jesus that the election campaigners displayed?
I don’t know about you, but that drive through town that morning was a wake-up call for me. I pray that a little more of my joy and excitement at knowing Jesus personally as my Lord and Saviour will begin coming through in my words and actions, so that there will be no doubt in the minds of anyone I interact with that I’m not only a Christian, but I’m excited to be one!
Let’s pray that we will all show a little more excitement about Jesus!
In His love,
Lyn
Lyn Chaffart, Speech-Language Pathologist, mother of two teens, Author and Moderator for The Nugget, a tri-weekly internet newsletter, and Scriptural Nuggets, a website devoted to Christian devotionals and inspirational poems, www.scripturalnuggets.org, with Answers2Prayer Ministries, www.Answers2Prayer.org.