REMEMBER WHO YOU ARE

I've heard it all my life, even as a child, "Practice what you preach."  Good advice isn't it?  Be what you say.  Do what you say you believe.  Let your life reflect your words.

In the New Testament, James tells the Church, "Prove yourselves doers of the word, and not merely hearers who delude themselves" (Jam. 1:22).  His reason?  "For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks at his natural face in a mirror; for once he has looked at himself and gone away, he has immediately forgotten what kind of person he was" (Jam. 1:23-24).

What's the word here?  Remember who you are!  Integrity might just be the word.  Being is as important as saying, maybe, more so.  Words can be a dime a dozen, as they say; Truth be known we live in a words-are-a-dime-a-dozen age. 

As Christians, being is profoundly important to us.  Words are important, too, and they ought to be spoken with great carefulness, clarity, and truthfulness.  In the end, however, people look at our lives -- how we live, move and have our being.  What they observe when they look at us needs to be the real thing.  Hypocrisy has done more damage to the image of Jesus than any other thing.

When Jesus really is the dominating influence in a person's life, it will be seen.  People may or may not appreciate it, but they will see it.  Our role is to live authentic lives, in both our words and our actions.  We adhere not to a system of belief but to a person, Jesus Christ, who empowers us to live as He lived.  We really out to be Christian in all that it means for us to be who we are.