I arrived at the orphanage not long after Easter and walked into a “conversation” between a counselor and one of her charges.
The boy wanted a cord or chain for a cross pendant he had come across. He felt this would solidify his Christian status.
The counselor, a Muslim (ethnically) had apparently had it with Christianity. Or with Orthodox Christianity. Or with Christian holidays…something had ticked her off. And here she began to rant…about the cross.
It (the cross) didn’t mean anything; Christianity didn’t mean anything. 90% of “Christians” just went to church to light a candle and say a prayer, then go on with their hypocritical lives.
I could feel the weight of the cross necklace I had put on that morning. I don’t wear one regularly; it just feels right sometimes. But I felt awkward to be wearing it at that moment.
If I had heard the comment from a random person on the street, maybe it wouldn’t have bothered me. But this counselor is someone I’ve been trying to witness to. We’re friends. I wanted to ask her, “How could you still think that about all Christians?” Not that I’ve been a saint, but are we all so two-faced? Are our lifestyles so obviously hypocritical.
What about my wedding? I wanted to ask. She had been a guest. The Christ-centered sermon, the church fellowship, the purity of our relationship…didn’t it mean anything?
And the American families she had visited a few summers ago…they were Evangelical, Bible-believing Christians. Didn’t they challenge her opinion a little bit? Or did she chalk it up to a cultural difference?
She needs to know Evangelical Christians HERE. Even as I write it, it sounds like a diagnosis, as if I could heal someone. No, only God can do that. But I wonder, if I need my social circles to overlap just a little bit more.
