Reality Check

I just heard on the news that 6 people were shot and 1 person was stabbed within the last 48 hours in Baltimore City. These were 7 isolated incidences. So much violence in such a short span of time is unusual, but not all that unbelievable here in Baltimore. This story came after 2 other stories about murders in Baltimore within the last week and before stories of a house fire and a person who was hospitalized with glass in their eye after their car window was shot, probably by a bb gun.

I suppose someone could react to this and say they must take all possible actions to prevent these atrocities. I react more selfishly though. If life is so fragile, if life can be so short, then how should I be living now? I’m not afraid to die, but I am afraid to waste the time that I have left.

I call myself a Christian, a follower of Jesus Christ. With my mouth I claim to follow Jesus and strive to be an imitator of his life and teachings. That’s how I want to live with the time I have left. That’s the secret to not wasting the time we’ve all been given. It’s an easy answer to reach yet its meaning leaves me with such anguish! How does one live as an imitator of Christ? What does that look like?

As possible answers to these questions come pouring into my mind I’m hit by a deeper and darker question: Am I really a Christian? My life doesn’t often look like Jesus’. If I can’t live what I claim to believe, then do I really believe it?

In John 8 Jesus is talking with a group of Jews. In verse 39 they claim that Abraham is their father. They are proud of their lineage, their history, their ancestor. They happily boast in their connection to such a man of God, but Jesus won’t accept it. He tells them that they cannot be children of Abraham because they don’t do what Abraham did. Abraham would have never sought to kill a man who speaks the truth from God as they are doing.

Jesus is speaking to me too. I happily boast in my relationship with Jesus, in my Christianity, but how can I claim that if my life doesn’t live it? I know I can never fully replicate Jesus’ love or peace or sacrifice in my life, but can’t I at least love like Jesus a little bit? Can’t I at least stand a little apart from the rest of the world in peace? Can’t I live and serve and sacrifice a bit of my time for the sake of others?

Yeah, I think I can. And perhaps it must start small; after all, my time left on earth may be small.