What do you want to look like?

"A man was asked to speak to a rather large church congregation. After he strode to the pulpit he said, "There are three points to my sermon." Most people yawned at that point. They'd heard that many times before.

But he went on. "My first point is this. At this time there are approximately 2 billion people starving to death in the world."

The reaction through the congregation was about the same, since they'd heard that sort of statement many times before, too. And then he said, "My second point . . ."

Everybody sat up. Only ten or fifteen seconds had passed, and he was already on his second point?

He paused, then said, "My second point is that most of you don't give a damn!"

He paused again as gasps and rumblings flowed across the congregation, and then said:

"And my third point is that the real tragedy among Christians today is that many of you are now more concerned that I said 'damn' than you are that I said that 2 billion people are starving to death." Then he sat down.

The whole sermon took less than a minute, but it is in many ways one of the most powerful ones ever given. In no uncertain terms, he was reminding those of us stuck in our pews that we are called not to mere piety but to genuine morality. We are called to action, not to fancy words. We are members of the kingdom of God, not the kingdom of niceness." - Story in, "Holy Sweat" by Tim Hansel

What kind of Christian are you? What do you want to look like?

Krista Jones
4.26.07