I Disagree (Non-Hiking Post)

Note: This is not about hiking. This about the other thing I'm passionate about...theology. 

I recently saw this “quote” on a Facebook friend’s timeline. (Yes, I know I just put the word quote in quotation marks. Go ahead and call the punctuation police, I “dare” you.) At first I tried to ignore it. This is social media; people can say whatever they want. Who am I to judge? I didn’t want to start a war on Facebook. But I can't let it go. People are posting spiritual sounding crap on the internet for people to read, like, share, tweet and re-tweet. (Gutenberg is turning over in his grave.) And if we print it using a pretty font superimposed on a pretty picture, then we automatically turn off our brains and assume it must be true.

So what is my problem with this quote? The Bible defines preaching as proclaiming a message that is heard (Romans 10:14) and scripture tells us faith comes by hearing the Word of God. (Romans 10:17) You want more? The gospel is news and using words is the most effective way to communicate news. And since the gospel is good news, why wouldn’t you want to share it? Why would you tell your neighbor, “I have the greatest news that will change your life, but I’m not going to tell you what it is. We'll play a game of charades: I’ll act holy, or religious, or spiritual and you guess what it means.”

What would my neighbor learn from observing my life? Hopefully that I am a decent person who loves his family and doesn’t let his dog poop in his neighbor’s yard. Maybe some people spend their whole life channeling Mother Teresa, so their neighbors believe they live next door to a saint. I’m impressed, but since living next door to a saint doesn’t save people, I still have to ask, how will they come to believe in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus unless someone opens their mouth and says the words?

I agree that making a serious effort to live out our faith will help validate the good news of the gospel. The ideas that talk is cheap, actions speak louder than words, and we earn the right to be heard might apply to me and my words. But when it comes to proclaiming God’s Word, the Bible tells us the Word of God is living, active and powerful (Hebrews 4:12) and there is nothing cheap about it (Revelation 6:9). To those who dare to preach this Word, the Bible declares you have earned the beautiful feet award (Romans 10:15), which beats the Mr. Rogers’ good neighbor award any day of the week.

Who appointed me the spiritual crap police? It’s a dirty job, but someone has to do it. And there is a lot more where this came from. God have mercy on us all.