Stop defending

I love reading the reviews of music albums on Amazon. Both the good ones and the bad ones are helpful, but a lot of times I read some debate-starting reviews.

Exhibit A: Mr. Allen writes of Owl City, "When one of your favorite artists crosses over into the dark side and fills his song with Christian innuendo, it's time to jump ship. What a shame."

Now, I'm a fan of Owl City. I like the sound of the synthesizer thingy, the flashing lights in the music videos, and the way that my foot starts tapping every time his song starts playing. It also just so happens that he's someone who sings about positive messages and hopeful things...and yes, he is a Christian, so once in awhile some Christian messages get into his music. My initial reaction was to get a little annoyed with the anti-Christian comment.

But as I scanned down the 15 or so responses to his review, some mild and others pretty fiesty, I realized something: Christians, myself included, feel like we need to defend Jesus. Like Peter in the Garden of Gethsemane, our first reaction is to draw our sword and start swinging at any attackers of Jesus, because we are supposed to protect Him, right? We are his warriors, correct?

Maybe not. I completely believe that I need to take a stance when someone tries to force me go against what I believe--abandoning Jesus in order to perhaps do the more popular thing isn't what God wants. But I don't think that kicking and screaming about what we believe gets us anywhere. Commenting "goodbye and good riddance" to Mr. Allen for not liking Owl City anymore doesn't do any good. Picketing with signs displaying "God hates fags" doesn't help express what Jesus was all about. Yelling at an atheist and spouting reasons he should believe in God doesn't make him or her suddenly believe in God.

So my fellow Christians, let's stop trying to be Jesus' machine gun and instead start being His hands and feet instead. Let's have conversations about difficult issues--without proclaiming (or thinking) "SINNER!!" Let's start letting God do the talking, instead of drowning Him out with our own arguing.

And to my friends who aren't Christians, I apologize for the times that I've sounded condescending, arrogant, or downright hateful by trying to "defend" Jesus. My hope and prayer is that you see the true God I love because of, and sometimes despite, what I do and say.

Blessings

BG