There are times when the public conduct of Christians wearies my heart. My attention can easily be distracted by the conduct of those who seem to have an overdeveloped sense of self-importance. Who feel the debate of the moment and their personal opinions of it are the center of the Christian universe. The outright ugliness and crudeness of the conversations draw my gaze aside from what really matters.
Then I’m brought back to the reality of a young Christian leader and his two daughters bereft of a mother unexpectedly. A loving family grieving the loss of their matriarch. An unbeliever who, despite hearing the Gospel many times, passes into eternity an unbeliever still. A mother heavily burdened by the spiritual waywardness of her adult son. A pastor saddened over a family wandering from God.
These are things that truly matter in this world. Not the talking heads, seminary professors, podcast hosts, and self-professed experts pontificating endlessly, spewing their hot takes for their babbling, fawning sycophants.
So, don’t look for Christ’s Bride in the silly, vulgar, asinine discourse between Christian leaders on Twitter. Don’t look for it in the truth-denying progressive or the grace-denying legalist. Don’t look for it in the shallowness of pop Christianity.
Look for it in a meal served to a grieving family. See it in a group of Godly men gathered to pray over a struggling brother. In students ministering to the spiritual and physical needs of the poor and marginalized. In a prayer prayed for a suffering family. See it in the passion of a church kneeling at an altar crying out for revival.
Christ can be found at the bedside of the sick and dying, walking close to the meek and lowly of heart, and carrying the weak and lonely. And where He is, we should be.
Christ, His love, and His church are manifested best, not in the places most visible, but in those least accessible.
Nephos 