After explaining the beauty and majesty of Yellowstone National Park to my cousin, he just stared at me blankly. We were visiting some family and friends in the Boston area and having dinner with my cousin’s family, when the discussion turned to vacations. They usually went to Disney World every year; I went on and on about how awe-inspiring Yellowstone is.
“It’s like nowhere else on Earth,” I gushed. “Geysers and mud pots you can get right next to and feel the steam and heat; elk and bear and bison wandering free and stopping traffic; canyons and waterfalls waiting to be explored; mountains and lakes and open spaces like nothing you’ve got here on the East Coast. It’s wild and unique and wonderous experience, right in our backyard. I loved it as a kid, and your kids will love it because they’re at the age they’ll appreciate it and remember it,” I said.
After a longer than expected pause, he looked back at me, and asked, “Yaaaaah … but what do you do there?”
As Christians, we can gush on and on about how awesome it is to have Christ in our lives, but what we do can say more about our faith than our words. Until we tangibly demonstrate what the love of Christ looks like, people will tune us out because they won’t experience it for themselves.
In Romans 12, Paul presents some practical guidelines for what we should do to show people Who we believe in, not just telling them, like:
- Serving other people well (12:7),
- Encouraging others, giving generously, and gladly showing kindness (12:8),
- Clinging to what is good (12:9),
- Honoring others above ourselves (12:10),
- Being joyful in hope, patient in affliction, and faithful in prayer (12:12),
- Practicing hospitality (12:13), and
- Doing all we can to live in peace with everyone (12:18).
What do you do?
Photo credit: Mark Ingraham