Recently, I encountered someone who said that Christianity is dying around the world because many Christians believe holiness is impossible in today’s chaotic and challenging world. Many Christians are incapable of changing the world; our culture has become so overwhelmingly powerful over everything we do that Christianity has no meaning for anyone. Doing random acts of kindness for those around us and anyone we come into contact with is part of being a Christian. That’s how Christianity will change individuals, one person at a time, and the world, one country at a time. Generosity, kindness, grace, light, hope, patience, courage, and love are what set Christians apart from societies that crave selfishness and a desire to place God last on their priority list.
Do I believe we as Christians are in a fight for our lives? Yes. Do I believe our culture pulls at us on all sides to be less available to help others? Yes. Do I believe that holiness and the desire to love others cannot be achieved in our challenging world? No. Do I believe God created us to fight one another, to be selfish at all costs, to create pain, hatred, greed, nationalism, and racism as promotions for our own national interests around the world, or not to love each other as we would want to be loved? No.
I believe God planted seeds of generosity, kindness, light, hope, grace, patience, courage, and love in all of us, so that we can make His creation a lasting home for all of us. Nelson Mandela once described the growth of freedom in African countries with the term, ubuntu. It means “I am because we are.” God sent His Son to find the fruits of the earth and to cultivate them. We are the fruits he was searching for. We are not here to be islands in the sea of humanity; we are here to be the caring humanity of a world that is becoming darker with secularism and a desire on the part of some people to make Christianity die.
As long as Christ is at the center of all of our thoughts and actions, Christianity will not die. It will continue to bring hope and light to all whose hearts are open to it. Early Christians fought to bring Christianity into the Roman world; some died to preserve the light of the world. We can do no less. With faith the size of a mustard seed, Jesus Christ will find fruit in every tribe on the earth and in every man’s heart. I pray that you will be changed in this Lenten and Easter season into the people that God ordained us to be, and that you will make a holy difference in the world because you let Christ’s light shine through you.
Anna Hartt
