While signs of religion can be spotted everywhere in our part of the world, true followers of Jesus can be hard to find. One of the many reasons for this phenomenon lies in the fact that deciding to commit to Christ can involve the risk of alienation from family. What apple pie and baseball are to Americans, the traditional religion is to the locals here, especially the older generation. Religion defines them as a people and to leave the established system to pursue Jesus amounts to denying one’s very identity and discrediting the family.
Recently this harsh reality hit me hard while attending the baptism of friend. Several years before, as a teenager, our friend heard the Gospel and Jesus supernaturally altered her life. Wanting to obey her Lord, our friend approached her mom and dad to ask if she could be baptized. Their reply was swift and unmistakable, “absolutely not”! Not wanting to dishonor her parents, our friend held off being baptized and simply lived out her faith before her family. After four years her parents unenthusiastically gave permission to be baptized but said they would not attend the service nor did they want to hear anything else about it. So on a chilly, autumn evening in a tiny, village church, with no family present, our friend was baptized. We all rejoiced and smiled that night for sure, but in my mind there still loiters a certain sadness...how sweet it would have been for our friend to have her mom and dad there supporting her. The cost of following Christ is high. Jesus warned us, it can even “turn...a daughter against her mother”. But for true followers, like our newly baptized sister in Christ, Jesus promises that the rewards in the end will far outweigh any risk.
No comments:
Post a Comment