Proclamation

Do you walk into your grocery store proclaiming your faith? Do you walk into the public library to proclaim and testify on your faith? When the timing is right, it’s a good thing. But it’s not done every place you go to.

I copied those words from an email I received yesterday. The response I gave to the author of the email was, “yes, I do often walk into the grocery store or the local library and proclaim my faith.  Perhaps not loudly, but with my actions and the message printed on my t-shirt.” What came to mind was a quote most often credited to St. Francis of Assisi: “Preach the Gospel always, when necessary use words.”

The words in the email didn’t bother me so much as knowing the author is a Christian did. In Mark 16:15, Jesus told his disciples to “Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation.” He didn’t say to preach only in certain places or only “when the timing is right.” He just said to GO. I don’t think that was meant only for the disciples all those years ago. This was meant for all of the followers of Christ.

We don’t need to be showy about our faith. We can live it out, preaching with our actions everywhere we go. A friend recently wrote on Facebook “I’d rather be a humble little turtle with un-noticed good works than a big headed baboon that’s praised for flashin’ around his big blue butt!” Even if my “good works” are unnoticed here on Earth, they are noticed in Heaven. And who’s to say that the door I hold open for the mom with five children won’t also open a door to Heaven for her?

I am not going to deny my faith. I refuse to let anyone make me feel ashamed of the gospel and of the love that I have for Christ. If that means I offend someone in the grocery store or in the library or in an internet chat room, so be it. Better to offend on Earth than risk offending my God in Heaven.

So I will proclaim my faith. I will act it out in all I do. I am not doing it to be a baboon and get attention for myself. I am doing it because the love of Christ is so great within me that I cannot keep it to myself.

I will share my faith because that is what Jesus wants me to do.