The Prince of Frogtown: By Rick Bragg
Excerpt taken from pg. 123
“The boy loved stories, and after a few months, after being shushed by the women in mid sentence a few thousand times, I finally figured out how to tell them to a little boy. I told him about seeing crocodiles lunge out of the water to seize a wildebeest in the Masai Mara, I described coming face to face with a black rhino in a forest of thorns, and how the Masai Warriors jumped high into the air around a popping fire as they sang of the killing of lions. I left out the women and children I saw starving against the wall of an Ethiopian Church. I told him I had been to the great deserts to see camel trains plod across a burnt-orange horizon, and stood on the same sand as Alexander the Great. I omitted the bombs and men who leapt through flames from burning tires to prove their love for a man named Bin Laden.
I told him of Voodoo priests in Haiti, of zombies and pounding drums, but never mentioned bloody coups or funeral flowers cut from tin.“
It might be a stretch, but this sounds a lot like confession of modern day Christianity to me.
We live a little, learn a little, and after the world repeatedly shushes us, we finally figure out how to tell the world about God. We learn to tell exciting and masterful stories of the amazing preaching and teachings we have heard; we tell them all about the great mission’s trips to Uganda, India, and other third world regions of the world, places where we fed the poor, and took care of the helpless.
We are so quick to let you know all about the amazing things that our church is doing in Afghanistan, and don’t even get me started when it comes to service throughout the community, I mean we’re Christians right? Everybody knows we pretty much have this serving thing down to a science!
And when those same people ask us if we are Christians we quickly say that we are, but with swiftness we add on how non-religious our lifestyle is.
As if religiosity was a disdainful and unwanted side effect of loving Jesus...
After all we go to church on Sunday, and some weeks we even attend bible study, but we don’t yell at people on street corners, right?
Let’s face it, in our society there are just some things that people want to hear; some things that people are ok with hearing, but those other things, those other things, well I should probably just keep those things to myself.
I don’t know if you have picked up on this yet, but serving Christ and pronouncing his name doesn’t really work that way. Half truths tell whole lies when regarding God, and a “Jesus” of only good and enjoyable outcomes is not a “Savior” the people are looking for. It is only a God that we have become comfortable with. A God painted in the nuances of our desires of Him, as opposed to His desires of us!
John F. Kennedy once said; “And so, my fellow Americans, ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country.”
Churches today sound a lot like this to me. So often I look to the pulpit as these words glare right back.
“And so, my fellow brothers and sisters in Christ ask not what your church can do for you; ask what you can do for your church!”
As a Christian body I believe we have missed the point.
Why do we try so hard to make God into in everlasting mountaintop; it’s all gravy with Jesus right? Hey dude/brother/man, check out this killer thing I did for the Lord, or how about this? I bet you’re impressed with that... Right?
Wait a minute things in your life are tougher than I had alluded to earlier? You need prayer? It’s not all smiles and baptisms? Your life is spinning out of control, your family is unhappy?
Well dude/brother/man that’s probably because you’re not serving enough... But hey, don’t you worry about it; go ahead and fill out this card, take this survey, become a member of this thing, help at that thing, and God is literally going to CHANGE, YOUR, LIFE!
Does it work that way? Is that the secret? God is awesome, help us park cars, sit back, take communion, and watch as your life begins to find shape?
In Revelations 12:11 it says “And they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony.”
So can I ask you a question?
Why do we sell Jesus short? Why do we lift up half of God? Why are we telling people to offer their lives to Him, to serve His church, without handing over the Good news, and what it’s all about?
“And they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony.” -Rev 12:11
It’s all right here. Why we follow him, and why the story of our lives, the entirety of the story, is so absolutely important to the health and intersession of our ministries.
The importance of why we do... What we do; it’s all right here in this small passage of scripture.
It encompasses why we cannot leave out the horrors we have faced. The absolute dead ends and rock bottoms He has seen us through, and when it comes right down to it, we follow Him, serve Him on the foundation of two distinct and powerful principles.
By His pain, suffering, and death on a cross we have been covered by his blood, through his resurrection we have been made sons of God. Through His providence in our lives the enemy has been conquered.
