To be fully HUMAN — A Daily Reflection

 

 

So the king gave the order, and they brought Daniel and threw him into the lions’ den. The king said to Daniel, "May your God, whom you serve continually, rescue you!"

 

Darius was a unbeliever.  In fact, he was the king of the unbelievers.  He was such a great unbeliever, he even wrote a law and made himself god for a month, totally unconcerned with the fact that there is only ONE God in existence – the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.  However, Darius had been around Daniel - a lot.  He had watched Daniel and how he practiced his faith.  He had seen over and over again how God had helped Daniel in one circumstance after another.  So when Darius was faced with having to follow through on the law he himself had written, even Darius, the king of the unbelievers, knew that Daniel’s only hope was Daniel’s God.

 

Every day, in everything we do - grocery shopping, driving our cars, working at our jobs, spending time in recreation - you and I are being watched.  Especially if those around us are not Christian.  Especially if those unbelievers know that you and I are followers of Jesus.  Why?  Whether it’s conscious or not, they are waiting for us to slip up.  Deep inside, they want to see us fall.  They want us to prove by our actions and our words and our attitudes that what we claim to believe is a lie.  They want us to show them that Christianity is a hoax… that Jesus’ death on the cross was meaningless… that we’re all idiots who are just looking for a crutch and a way to cop out.

 

Some years ago, I worked with a man who became a good friend.  However, this man was not a Christian, and he was fully aware of my dedication to Jesus.  One day something happened in my personal life to which I reacted in a not-very-Christian way.  His immediate and sarcastic comment was, "That’s a pretty unchristian attitude for someone like you to have!"  I was so embarrassed, I couldn’t say anything.  Later that day, however, after praying about it, I did what the Lord prompted me to do… I went to my friend’s office and said, "I want to thank you for making me realize how un-Christlike my attitude was earlier.  Thanks… I needed that!"  Needless to say, he was stunned.  Rather than getting angry, as he expected me to, I thanked him for upbraiding me.  And that incident, he said, had a lasting impact on him.  So even when we mess up, God provides the way to repair the damage.

 

What do unbelievers see when they see you?  Do they see a living testimony of Jesus?  Or do they see someone who is no different from themselves - an individual who has no hope, just like the rest of the world?  And when you do mess up, do you make an effort to repair the damage… or do you just make things worse by ignoring your own sin and continuing in the world’s ways? 

 

Think about it.