By David ReayThursday 14 Jan 2021LifeWords DevotionalsDevotionsReading Time: 2 minutes
Live wisely among those who are not believers, and make the most of every opportunity. Let your conversation be gracious and attractive so that you will have the right response for everyone. (NLT)
It is rather hard to engage our world with the good news of Jesus if we quarantine ourselves from that world. It is sadly possible to live in a sort of Christian bubble. We see the “world” as needing help but we may have so removed ourselves from that world that we have minimal opportunities to help it.
And when we do venture into the world to speak and live out our faith, we may be speaking a foreign language or acting inappropriately. The words and concepts and ideas we learn and practise in our “bubbles” are not what catch fire in the wider world. Church workers and preachers may have lived in such a bubble for so long that they cease to grasp just what is needed to engage the world they so desperately want to engage.
Many of us belong to some sort of “tribal cluster”. We have our habits, our jargon, our prejudices. Our task is to ensure that these do not become a hindrance to engaging our world. Our words and actions are to be wise, gracious, even attractive. Always a challenge. But even more of a challenge if we are so immersed in our own culture that we are ignorant of anything outside it.
To reach a world increasingly dismissive of Christianity as demonstrated in the church, we may need to burst some bubbles.
Blessings
David