"To those of my race who depend on bettering their condition in a foreign land, or who underestimate the importance of cultivating friendly relations with the Southern white man, I would say: "Cast down your bucket where you are—cast it down in making friends in every manly way of the people of all races by whom we are surrounded."
- Booker T. Washington while in Atlanta, Georgia, September 18, 1895.
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I was doing a random Internet searches over anything that popped in my mind at the time and came by this quote while I was searching for something cool that happened on my birthday.
What struck me about it the most was the time that had elapsed since this message was delivered, and how little we've done to change society's prejudice against anything different -- whether it be race, religion, or interests.
115 years? What have we accomplished besides war? Americans have increased in the industrial sense, we've invented new gadgets and toys that are making us increasingly more lazy, but what have we done to help our fellow man?
If you were to walk up to someone on the street and ask them if they believed in God, they'd probably say yes. If you asked them what religion they practiced, they would probably say Christian/Roman Catholic/Muslim seeing as these are the most common religions worldwide. If you asked them what they did to help their brothers and sisters in faith you could probably bank on a weird stare first, an awkward silence second, then a mumbled "well I baked cookies for the bake sale," will likely be soon to follow. Go ahead then, and ask what they did Friday night and you'll likely hear a grand scale of activities, excitement and money spent.
I believe there's a problem when we get more excited about activities that don't matter than we do about helping people. When church becomes a social activity, or political, it becomes law based and routine.
Why are the number of Christians saved, verses the number of Christians who remain in church so drastically different? On average, about 1/5 of Christians stick with their committment to Christ after "giving their lives" to Him. How long does it take? For most, anywhere between 1-3 months.
When did Christianity become like browsing through blockbuster? No late fees, everyone's going to heaven, and if you don't like it, just take it back for a full refund? No. That's not it.
We have become apathetic in the areas in our lives that we need to stand firm in. We are setting ourselves up for failure in every aspect of our Christianity by simply not speaking up. This breaks my heart. I see it all the time at work, people who are wonderful Christians everywhere else letting their guards down when they punch in on their timeclock. But what we don't realize, is that's our living testimony.
Cindy is a new Christian, she works with you in the office and knows that you're a Christian, too. She wants to tell you about something she just read in her Bible that helped her and she thinks you'll like it, too. She comes over and sits down, starts to read this verse to you and you cut her short because your soap opera is on, and you're talking about the new girl in pricing who's sleeping with the guy in mailroom.
Cindy doesn't show up to church next Sunday. Why? Because she got a false showing of what true Christianity is from you.
I am by no means trying to come off as saying I'm perfect, or that I've never misrepresented Christ by my actions. What I'm saying is, that we should be transparent and consistent. We need to be stable and compassionate, eager to help and willing to put others first.
It starts with faith, with faith comes goodness, with goodness comes trust. Most Christians today are losing it in these three most crucial steps. I believe that if we truly are good, then having compassion will come natural to us.
It is better to be a nobody and yet have a servant's heart than to pretend to be somebody and have no food -- Proverbs 12: 09
This is my challenge to myself, and to other Christians out there.
Can Christians do it? I believe we can.
Can you?
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