Articles
Making a Stand
For the past several weeks, the media has highlighted at least one NFL player and his
“protest” of violence and social inequality of minorities in our country. Whether or not you agree
with his stance is not the direction of this article. I have often wondered if many in our country
would even have known about this “protest”, if it had not been aired over TV and debated over
social media. Someone noticed one individual kneeling for our National Anthem, instead of
standing with hand over heart, and now it is spreading like wild fire!
But this has given me cause to think a little bit more regarding the lives we are to be
living for Christ. We all know the words of Jesus, “Let your light shine before men in such a way
that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven” (Mt. 5:16). Or,
maybe the words of the apostle Paul, “...prove yourselves to be blameless and innocent, children
of God above reproach in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you
appear as lights in the world,…” (Phil. 2:15). Here is the rub: How do people know I am living
for Christ, if I don’t tell them so!?
You see, if no one ever questioned Mr. Kaepernick regarding his “protest”, no one would
have known anything in particular. In fact, the problem would probably have already been
dismissed and life would have moved on. It took someone asking, and then a response for the
word to get out as to the reason for his “protest”.
As Christians, it is somewhat easy to live a “good” life and be “lights” in a dark world.
There are a lot of “good” folks living lives that “shine” in a dark world, but are not Christians.
They are just living “good” lives for the sake of being “good”. There were individuals in the
Bible noted for living “good” lives, but were still lost in sin: the centurion whose servant was
healed by Jesus (Luke 7), Cornelius (Acts 10), Lydia (Acts 16), etc.
Not only are we to be living a life that “shines” for the Lord, we need to be telling others
why we are living such lives. That is the teaching and preaching process Jesus commanded in
Matthew 28:19-20 and Mark 16:15. We need to remind ourselves that “faith comes from hearing
and hearing by the word of God” (Romans 10:17). Our examples are important, but faith can
only come from hearing [teaching] the truth of God’s Word. The apostle Peter instructed,
“...always being ready to make a defense to every one who asks you to give an account for the
hope that is in you,…” (1 Peter 3:15). Let us not be satisfied just making a stand for Christ, but,
rather, looking for opportunities to teach Christ from day to day! ~P. Mowrer
