Higher Standard.

I'm one of those people who always forgets that strangers can see into my car. Always. Whenever I'm driving by myself I eventually end up singing along to the music at the top of my lungs. I will sing and dance until I make awkward eye contact with someone in a car next to me. I have gotten caught picking things out of my teeth in the rear-view mirror, and yes, someone has even caught me picking my nose before (which is super embarrassing to admit. haha) You would think that I would remember that my windows are completely see-though and barely tinted, but for some reason I seem to forget again and again.
The other day I was driving back from Rochester and noticed someone staring at me as I was singing (and dancing) to a song by my favorite band of the moment, Bastille. After they gave me a weird look and I recovered from the embarrassment, I started thinking about how much this relates to our lives as Christians....how often do we forget that other people are paying attention to our actions? No, I'm not talking about whether or not you sing or dance in the car...I'm talking about all the times we fail to act as Jesus did. Granted, we are all humans and and are bound to fail time and time again...but as Christians, aren't we supposed to be called to a higher standard?

Tonight at Vespers we sang a song called "Everything" by Tim Hughes. In this song, it talks about God being at the center of EVERY aspect of our lives. The song asks God to be present in our breathing, sleeping, working, speaking, thinking, dreaming, waiting, weeping, and healing. It's pretty easy to sing a song about wanting God to be the center of everything we do....but why is it so hard to actually live that way? We so often forget that other people are watching us to see if Christianity is all that it is said to be. People expect us to live differently than everyone else, but sadly, I feel that most of the time these observers get let down.

The term "Christian" has become so watered-down in today's age. It has lost it's true meaning. Being labeled a "Christian" is supposed to mean that you are a "Christ Follower"......but in society today, being labeled a "Christian" just means you believe there is a God, or you go to church on Easter and Christmas. Now I don't want to make it seem like I'm condemning those of you who may do these things...that is not my intention at all. But to be a Christian means to have a relationship with Christ. It means to follow after Him. If you call yourself a Christian, people will look at your life to see how it is different. People ARE going to judge you by the way you act. Becoming a true, Christ-following Christian should change every aspect of your life! It should change your breathing, sleeping, working, speaking, thinking, dreaming, waiting, weeping and healing, because God should now be at the center. We Christians need to stop pretending that people can't see into almost every aspect of our lives. We are not one-way mirrors! Other people can see what we are doing just as easily as we can see how others live.

Now the big question here is How? How are we supposed to live differently? How are we supposed to put God at the center? The answer is found in Luke 10:27 when Jesus says, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind." When you love someone, you want them to be a huge part of your life. You want them to be apart of everything you are. The same thing goes for our relationship with God. If you truly love him with all your heart, soul, strength and mind, then not only will He be the center of your life, but others will see that and God will be glorified through you.

We cannot forget that other people are watching what we do! This is something that I really need to work on (both in my driving, and in my life). I'm a work in progress. But I pray that every day the Lord will bring me one step closer to living a life that truly glorifies him through the way I live.