I'm jumping to a conclusion on this one?
Maybe, but not likely. Often I encounter this when folks are talking about faith and living out life as a Christian. It would appear, and most attendance records confirm, that the prevailing attitude is one that faith, in particular Christianity, is a girl's thing, that there is no room for a "man" in the faith and that you have to turn in your man card once you come to faith.
Survey says?
X
When I was 18, I was brought down to the Egg in Albany for a Christian rock concert. I can no longer remember the band that was playing, but the music was good. After the band played, a guy got up on stage and began speaking. He talked about how difficult his life was growing up. He shared about violence, gangs, drugs and alcohol. He talked about how he was able to have people afraid of him as a result of his reputation. He shared about how a man approached him one day about coming to know Christ. Ultimately, this man accepted Jesus as Lord and found his life begin to change. Along the way, he too faced the idea of becoming a wimp for the sake of his faith. In the process of facing this, however, he came to the conclusion that being a Christian, a real live out your faith no matter what they say believer and follower of Jesus Christ, was by far the toughest fight he had ever been in. He offered to us in the audience to come forward, to take on the fight ourselves, to get ready to take on the toughest decision we would ever make. I did that day, with a couple of hundred others bouncing in front of the stage shouting "Jesus is my Lord". The man giving the talk was Nikki Cruz.
I have found that living out life as a Christian man is by far the toughest fight of my life. I have to face the fact that my faith is not popular. My faith is often (as it has been throughout the centuries) counter cultural. I hold myself to an ideal that was given at the dawn of time and continues to this day. I am bombarded from the right by people who think they are the only smart ones and have figured out "the way" to find "whatever" but I have to be smart enough to follow them. On the left I am constantly bombarded by those who say I am cruel and judgmental because their feelings get hurt over my beliefs. They jam their beliefs down my throat and tell me its progress; it's a better way, its progressive revelation or some other means by which to rationalize the change. Should I mention my own beliefs and I'm getting accused of hate speech and the ACLU is knocking on my door.
Family, supposed friends, other acquaintances and even in the tightest confines of relationships…all have left or altered their end of the relationship with me based upon my beliefs/faith. Many have turned away. Some just call less often because I'm not "the same person" I once was. I'm not interested in joking around about sex. I'm not interested in ogling the skin show at the beach, mall or other locale. I'm not interested in getting drunk, stoned or stupid. In truth, I like not having headaches, makes the day go by so much better. And each time they see me………
Yet, in my faith I stand. On The Rock, I rest. I have to. I am called to and I said "yes". No matter the battering of waves of public opinion, the storms of intellectual self worship or the shaking of political belief systems I remain a follower of my Lord Jesus Christ.
Are you tough enough?
