I once heard Billy Graham say that the biggest reason for atheism in the world is Christians. “They acknowledge Jesus with their lips,” he said, “and walk out the door and deny Him by their lifestyle. That is what an unbelieving world simply finds unbelievable.”
It’s hard to be a Christian in today’s world. Not as hard as it was, say, maybe 1,900 years ago in Rome, but still, it can be quite a challenge. Also challenging is actually figuring out what a true Christian is supposed to look like. We’ve complicated things with our superfluous rules and nostalgic traditions, not too much unlike the Pharisees that Jesus battled long ago. Where shall we look for an unadulterated (a better use of this word there could never be) look at what a true Christian should be?
For those who have volunteered with young children, I need not tell you how entertaining it can be to mix a bunch of eager, bright-minded 7-year-olds with theology. The communal sharing of prayer requests and praises is especially entertaining when you’re among children, being the literal-minded pragmatists they are. They’ll pray for their grandma’s toenails, for heaven’s sake.
Children are, without a doubt, the most honest and passionate practicers of their faith. If you’d like to see what being a true Christian should be like, don’t look at the adults sitting in a pew at a church. Instead, walk down the halls to the Sunday School rooms. That’s where you’ll find it: the most perfect example of faith. The faith of young children.
These words come from my bud Daniel Bigler, and I couldn’t agree more. Children make it look easy, but I don’t think it was ever intended to be that hard.
This is so true. Young children embrace faith because it is. As adults we bring in too much reasoning. If more of us would embrace it as a child does, I don’t think we would have trouble finding true Christians. We get too caught up in reasoning that it blocks the flow of complete acceptance.