The absurdity of our faith

A couple of comments on Boundless.org responding to an article about martyrdom caused me to stop and think. I appreciated the transparency of this man:

“Whenever I hear stories about martyrs, ancient and modern, I praise God for their faithfulness, while at the same time I feel an ugly emotion something like jealousy. In a way, they make me look bad, as an American who has always lived in freedom and material comfort and has never had to face anything worse than mild ridicule for my faith.

…It's hard to know how to respond to stories of Christian persecution abroad. Of course it is easier to be a Christian in the United States. Ordinarily that would be a good thing; in important ways, our system works. Religious freedom is guaranteed and, in most cases, is protected. That is the way it should be, but the flip side of our religious freedom, of course, is that American Christians, by and large, do not experience the persecution for their faith that is the constant companion of our brothers and sisters elsewhere, along with the powerful spiritual growth that no doubt follows as a result.

…I suspect if we Christians really lived out our faith we would be just as unpopular in the United States as anywhere else.”

- John on Boundless.org

I especially like that last comment. How would our country change if everyone who attends a church or claims to be a Christian lived out that faith? If we allowed the Lord control over all our time and where we give our money? If the Holy Spirit stirred up the hearts of all believers in the U.S.? Praise the Lord for our unpopularity!

Here is another interesting thought:

“…Here in this country we "sell" Christianity as some kind of self-fulfillment, feel-good type of religion… I wonder how effective it would be if we also tacked on the caveat, ‘Oh, by the way. You might be persecuted by your family, friends, and government. Have your property taken away, be tortured, and ultimately killed.’”

- Mike Theemling on Boundless.org

It reminds me of when our director Tom White was interviewing a man who had been run out of more than 20 villages for speaking about his faith. Dr. White asked him, “Some Christians in our country preach that when you become a Christian you will be wealthy and God will give you lots of houses, cars and money. What do you think of that?”

Upon hearing the translation, the somewhat solemn man broke into a chuckle. To this faithful saint, the idea that God rewards us materially on earth was utterly ridiculous.