Someone’s Watching You

As Christian’s we are being watched everyday of every year. We are watched by family and friends, work colleagues, and those in our neighborhoods and towns. And oftentimes we watch each other.

I remember one time when I tried to get my minivan to walk on water – Jesus would have been proud, NOT! It had been hammering down for several days and I was taking my daughter to her acting classes. When I arrived at the church where the acting school was based the parking lot was closed due to flooding. The other parents were parking on the road and walking around the water to get to the church, but being a “brute force and ignorance” Brit I decided I could make it. So I drove through the water. All was going well until smoke started to pour out of the engine and, after a couple of really loud clanks, the engine died a horrible, squealing death.

Of course I was a picture of calmness and serenity amidst this private storm… if you believe that you’ll believe anything… I lost it! I had an absolute freak out. Then I remembered I had my nine year old daughter in the car and slowly began to calm down. I opened my minivan door to find that the water level in the parking lot was level with the floor of my minivan. I looked around in panic hoping there would be someone who would be willing to give me a hand pushing my minivan to safety. Most of the parents taking their kids to acting classes attended the church where the classes were being held, but none of them looked my way, they just continued on with their mission to get their kids to the class on time.

In sheer desperation I went into the church building to ask if there was anyone there who could give me a hand. I was told by the church secretary that all the staff were busy and that there was no-one free to help, even though I could see through a window behind her three men sitting in an office laughing with one another – Interestingly, I found out about a year later that they were in fact laughing about me and my predicament and when they saw me walking towards the building had told the church secretary that they wouldn’t help as they didn’t want to get wet.

Thinking back, what does this say about the church? People have often said to me that the church is filled with people who don’t really care for others, and based on my experience it would have been easy for me, had I not been a Christian, to chalk this up as another example of the hypocritical attitude that is found in so many professing believers.

Ok, maybe I’m being a little cynical, maybe even a little harsh, because I know that there are some wonderful people in the church who would do anything for anyone. But the truth remains, I still remember how I felt when no-one was willing to help me. And I often ask myself, “If I wasn’t a believer how would this event have formed my thinking re: the church, Christian’s, and maybe more importantly God?”

People are watching us. We need to be careful that, as Christian’s, we are presenting God in such a way that people would be attracted to him… not driven away. Matthew 5:16 says, “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.” (NASB) And we are to do this even if it means we have to get a little wet or dirty in the process.

So, when people watch you, what do they see? (A rhetorical question indeed )

Christian St John M.Div, BChM, ACS
May, 2009

Picture by Jesse Therrien