Gandhi was asked the question, "Mr. Ghandi, though you quote the words of Christ often, why is that you appear to so adamantly reject becoming his follower?"
Then Ghandi replied, "Oh, I don't reject your Christ. I love your Christ. It's just that so many of you Christians are so unlike your Christ."
Apparently Ghandi's rejection of Christianity grew out of an incident that happened when he was a young man practising law in South Africa. He had become attracted to the Christian faith, had studied the Bible and the teachings of Jesus, and was seriously exploring becoming a Christian. And so he decided to attend a church service. As he came up the steps of the large church where he intended to go, a white South African elder of the church barred his way at the door. "Where do you think you're going, kaffir?" the man asked Ghandi in a belligerent tone of voice.
Ghandi replied, "I'd like to attend worship here."
The church elder snarled at him, "There's no room for kaffirs in this church. Get out of here or I'll have my assistants throw you down the steps."
From that moment, Ghandi said, he decided to adopt what good he found in Christianity, but would never again consider becoming a Christian if it meant being part of the church.
Wow, can we just look at Gandhi's respone again, "Oh, I don't reject your Christ. I love your Christ. It's just that so many of you Christians are so unlike your Christ." I highly doubt that only challenges me. After coming back from The Gauntlet in Panama I've been challenged with so many different things on my walk with Jesus. It's tough but I absolutely love it.
O, some background info, the word "kaffir" that the white South African guy called Gandhi is the equivalent to our derogatory word for a black person or it could also mean an infidel to Islam people.
So what Gandhi said has lead me to constantly think, "Am I doing anything now, that if someone was watching me, knew I was a Christian, and wanted to learn more about it, would they be encouraged to talk to me about it and think of Christians in a good light or will they be turned away?" I've also found it good to even think this way when you're alone. Because, lets be honest, when you're alone you feel like you can do something and nobody can know about it. Lets use the example of cussing, say you cuss when you're alone but not in front of other people. Do you ever think that that cussing habit will slip out of your private life and you'll say one in front of your peers or friends? When all in all you could've just stopped cussing in your alone time so you have nothing to worry about when you're not alone.
I've also felt the challenge of not being a hypocrite. I felt this way at The Gauntlet. I felt so bad, because I would raise my hands to the songs, close my eyes, and look up, just admiring God and loving him. But then I would think, "Would I do this at Fuse?" And most of the time the answer was no. It wasn't no because of what my friends would think, it would be no because I would have other things on my mind. I would have what I was going to do after Fuse on my mind, what I did before, what Daniel was wearing :-p. Anything like that could be on my mind when all in all it should be God, and solely God. It was solely God in Panama, but that's because I had nothing else to focus on! So that led me to the challenge of when I walk in Fuse, or when I walk in NewSpring on Sunday, to not have anything else on my mind. To have God on my mind. To worry about where I'm going after, well, after (for the slow people, that means that after Fuse is when I would worry about what I was going to do after Fuse).
So w00t for being challenged! It's been awesome and I love it. I love challenging myself, because either way I get to brag to myself about me winning :-p. Whether I lose the challenge then I brag about creating a challenge too tough. Or if I win then I brag to myself that I beat my challenge. It's a win-win.
