Standing for Beliefs

“If you do not believe in something you will fall for anything.” That quote is one that I’m sure everyone has heard more than once. It’s sound advice. We all also have heard stories of people that stood up for what they believed in no matter what the cost. Some of these stories appall us, others yet, excite us.

The moments that really take hold are the ones that inspire awe in us. These range from Rosa Parks to Ghandi to the founding fathers of this county. They also go to people that are less known such as the monks that set themselves on fire in protest, to the man in Gastonia, NC that robbed a bank for one dollar just to get medical treatment. They can be figures that will be remembered for ages to come like Jesus Christ, to the man that will be forgotten tomorrow.

As Christians we are told that by our faith we shall be known. We are told there is a way that we should act. Look through the first few books of the New Testament and we are slammed with expectations. Jesus tells us to be more like him each and every day. To do that we must go against the grain of society, culture and modern thought. To go even further, we have to go against the policies of the companies in which we work for. But to do that costs. We have to go against injustice, reach out and help people.

Paul went to jail for the rest of his life, when with a few simple words, he could have lived as a free man. Jesus went to his death with Pilot trying to get him to phrase “Truth” in an angle that lead to un-truth, when he could have so easily said something to set him free. Rosa Parks could have given that white boy her seat. What kept them from taking the easy way out? It wasn’t right, it was against their ideals. They stopped accepting, “Well that’s the way it’s always been done.”

Just because that’s the way it was done does not make it right. Today the world is in uproar. Look all over the world and there are protests and people fighting for change because things today are not right. When a man is turned away from a hospital because he does not have the money to get the surgery that he needs, that is just not right. But yet we support the systems that make this possible and accept that is the way of it.

I understand the concept of obeying the laws of the land, but do we have to accept them? What if a law goes directly against something we believe in? What if it goes against a teaching in the bible? Do we still accept it? We give unto Cesar what it Ceaser’s, but when do we do like Moses and make them let out people go? How many of you do not like what is on TV these days, but still have cable? If you do not like something, but you accept it and continue to let it come into your home… who’s at fault?

The world is not our own and our bodies are made of sin and are of this world. Newton’s laws of physics proves that change takes action and is hard. “An object at rest will remain at rest.” Even bigger than that, “An object in motion will remain in motion until it meets equal and opposite force.” So, if we are in a routine of sin, it takes at least as much effort to stop. So what does it take to turn us in the other direction? To change what we are doing instead of just stopping, well it takes more. You have to put in more effort to make a life change than the force effecting us in sin.

 That is why I believe that as Christians many of us continue accepting the way the world is. Think about how hard you would have to push back to get the entire world to change from the way it is currently going? That would be humanly impossible, alone. That is why we have another idea ingrained in our heads. We are each part of a greater whole. We cannot be as big of an impact as Jesus by ourselves, it requires all of us working together to make this change.

This change that I am talking about it not just a single change, no it is a complete change. We must stand up for our ideals, our beliefs, and more importantly for one another. “This fight is one that we cannot win alone,” said Dane Johnson. He is exactly right as well. We are fighting a world that wants us to accept the way things are. It wants us to be a cog in the machine and just live life according to the way things are planned out for us.

I mean we have our lives plotted out for us in a simple checklist:

Go to school, get good grades, graduate, go to college, get a job, get married, get a house, have a family, send them to school, make sure they continue to do the checklist, pay taxes along the way and die.

Along the way we get little add-ins that society tells us we have to do to be accepted. Dress a certain way, eat certain things, get credit cards, go in debt. I mean even as we look at the way the financial market is right now. We have to have credit to buy a house, a car or even to have certain jobs. Yet the bible tells us PLAINLY to not lend nor borrow. As we get in debt, we use it to live beyond our means, which leads us to more debt.

So are you a Christian? Do you live by these models? Why?

I am tired of hearing Christians say, “It’s the way society is, and we can’t change it.” I say that if we are going to be more like Jesus, YES we can change it. Do not accept that the world is broken and just “Paint over the wallpaper.” We are being that are told to go into the world and make disciples of the world. If the world were disciples then the world would change.

Do not accept the status quo. Do not accept that’s the way things are. Do not do it because I said so. Do it because it is what Christ asked us to do. Help your fellow man, and help see the love of God. We can change the world; we have been as a people for thousands of years. Let’s not stop today, let’s not stop now.

If you do not believe in Corprate Greed, stop Supporting It! If you don’t want crap on your TV, stop Watching It! If you are against the Debt System, stop using it! If you do not like a company, stop shopping with them. Do not accept that’s the way it is, or I have to because society tells you to. Take a step closer to Christ. If we continue to support the system that is degrading society and pulling it further and further away from what God would want, we are just as guilty when we fall into line. Make a change starting with the person you look at in the mirror each morning, then to your home, then in how you live your life.

Make changes in your life, and make a difference in the world. Opinions always welcome.