Of all places you can be in the Christian faith, the middle ground is the worst place. 

After dancing around the truth for years, I have come to accept that if I call myself a ‘Christian’, I need to start acting like one. Attending Church on Sundays is not good enough. Knowing how to speak in tongues is inadequate. And uttering a quick ‘Good morning God, Jesus, and Holy Spirit’ (in place of prayers) before I head out of my house every morning is laughable.

Beneath all the fluff we hear from our eloquent pastors week after week, lies a faith that is serious business.

The men and women who were first called Christians did not get the name as a fancy title; it had more of a negative ring to it. It was a shameful thing to die on a cross, and these were the people who thought that Jesus, the one who was crucified was a hooligan and acted this belief out on his followers.

People have been beaten, jailed, tortured, and killed for this faith! It is utmost folly to think that we can get by with a few ‘God is great’ tweets every once in a while. It does not work that way.

It’s clear that as young Christians, we’ve gotten thoroughly carried away with trying to blend in, when the whole purpose of our faith is to stand out. We want to be ‘cool’ and still be considered Christians, so we gossip, get drunk, swear, tweet when we should be at work, bully, dress provocatively, hate, and are insensitive. Of course, we interject these with grand exclamations of our love and awe of God, but all these simply point to the fact that we have cooked up or own palatable recipe of the faith:

• Take 1 Bible verse every fortnight
• Add 2 Jesus-y tweets a week
• Chop out fasting and meditation
• Mix it up with a weekly church service
• Throw in 1 ear full of empty motivational messages
• Pick out the seeds of abstinence
• Add a daily dose of social media distraction (While you’re at it, dump in a little anonymous e-bullying; no one will know)
• Add a pinch of prayer
• Heat it up with music (try a blend of solid beats with lewd lyrics)

I could go on.

The bottom line is this: Christians, we need to do better! Of all places you can be in the Christian faith, the middle ground is the worst place. Having one leg in and one leg out means you lose out in the end. In this present life you’ll be constantly dealing with feelings of guilt and inadequacy, and in the next, you may lose your reward* because you were never really here nor there.

Why am I a Christian? Has my life changed since I began to profess this faith? Why is my non-Christian colleague more generous than I? Am I even different from my atheist friends? If not, should I just stop deceiving myself and join them?

I was at an event at Get Arena a couple of weekends ago. There was a lot of crudeness being spewed, but it was wrapped up in great rap punch lines, and I was enjoying it. At a point, I couldn’t stop myself from thinking, why am I here? Is God happy with my being here? Everyone has a free will, and I have chosen to be a Christian, so why am I not acting like it?

The saddest part of this watery faith we now live is the fact that we ignore God. He is always at our disposal, yet we live our lives like he is disposable. We need to stop making Him ashamed to be associated with us, with our thoughts, our words, our actions, our tweets, our blog posts. If you are a Christian, then take a few minutes to think about the fact that God sent his Son to die for you.

Stop mocking that sacrifice.

If you are a Christian, the Kingdom you have been called to is made up of amazing things, far greater than anything Steve Jobs could have invented on his most brilliant day. Take a few minutes to watch this video and recognize just how grossly insignificant, our lives, dreams, careers, pursuits, and goals are in the ‘Grand Scheme of Things’, and let your awe move you to seek for more of God. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Ya12I036lg

*Note I didn’t say you’d go to hell. Salvation is a gift; it is not earned. I believe that once you accept Christ, you have your ‘ticket’ to Heaven. However, in Heaven, everyone will be rewarded based on their actions, and of course, these rewards will vary.

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About the author: ‘Damilola Oyedele thinks she’s an eagle in a human’s body. Fly with her on twitter @DamiOyedele.

 

Editor’s note: Op-ed pieces and contributions are the opinions of the writers only and do not represent the opinions of Y!/YNaija.