What’s a Christian?

January 31, 2008

Yesterday I was in the car doing a driving lesson with a young lady, and as I try to do always, we got to talking about matters of faith.  She told me several times that she was a Christian, that she had been raised in a Christian family and had been at church ‘all the time’ when she was younger.  But now that she had graduated high school she was not as involved as she had used to be.  Nevertheless, she believed in God and regarded herself as a Christian.

As I talked with her, I suspected there was very little substance, if any to her profession of faith.  I wanted to gently show her that, or at least get her asking some questions to cause her to think more deeply about what she believed.  So at one point in the lesson, I said to her, ‘It sounds like you’ve been in the church a long time and since you are a Christian, so do you mind if I ask you one more question?’  She agreed, and so I asked her, ‘What’s a Christian?’ 

She looked at me nearly dumbfounded.  ‘Wow, that’s a really good question.  And I should know the answer to that shouldn’t I?’  Well, if you are one, then I suppose it would be good to know what one is, I said in a humorous tone though there really was no humor in it.  She thought for a few seconds and simply responded, ‘I don’t know.’  When I confirmed that she was saying she was a Christian but simultaneously she did not know what a Christian was, and she said that’s right.  ‘That sounds kind of bad doesn’t it?’ she asked me.  I told her that she should really find out what a Christian was, because then she could know for sure whether she was one or not.

As our lesson came to a conclusion, I had an opportunity to share with this young woman what a Christian was.  But my answer got me thinking about how others might answer that question.  So I would be interested to know what you readers think; if you had 60 seconds to tell someone what a Christian was, what would you say?  I realize that a 60 second answer might prompt more questions from the person you are talking with, and much more should and could be said.  But what’s the barest of the basics that they need to know? 

Leave a comment and let me know what you think,

Larry

Posted by Larry | Filed Under Random Musings, Seeking Him 

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