There’s a lot of information that needs to be kept private: weight, personal hygiene issues, the location of certain scars. Faith, however, should not be kept private. I know we’ve all heard people say otherwise. And they have good reasons: They don’t want to offend people, to create arguments, to be looked down on. And I understand that.
But the truth is, we talk about what is important to us. My daughter, Emma, for example, can talk all day about shopping. She has a passion for fashion. She’s not embarrassed to share that passion with others – even those who could care less. In fact, if someone doesn’t enjoy fashion, she will try to convince them that they should.
We all know people who go on and on about certain topics. We do the same thing, even though we may not realize it. Just get me started on musicals from the ’40s…! It is only natural to speak out loud what fills our thoughts.
So if we are open about what is important to us, and we say we want to keep our faith private, then doesn’t it stand to reason that our faith really isn’t that important to us?
I’m not saying we shove our beliefs down other people’s throats or that we stand on the street corner telling people “The End is Near.” But I am saying that our faith should saturate every aspect of our lives, from the ball fields to the band rooms to the malls. The people we know should know we’re Christians, just as much as they should know we love fashion or old musicals or the Tampa Bay Rays.
Emma gets this, and she’s just 14. She’s not ashamed of the gospel, not with her friends, not on social media, not even with strangers. Her faith is an important part of her life – the most important – and everyone knows it. Is she perfect? Nope. But none of us is perfect. We don’t need to be perfect in order to share our faith. We do, however, need to be public with it.
