"Be A Rebel!!"
“Murder at high noon” screamed the Mirror this week as it announced the death of the Additional Collector of Nasik district, Yashwant Sonawane. As I sat in the comfort of my cubicle, surrounded by the beauty of manmade architecture, the dream world of a growing India burned around me. Will India ever get there? Will corruption ever leave us? Will the system ever change? Will honesty ever be respected? Will love ever rule over selfish desire?
As these thoughts bogged me down, a sudden realization gripped me, living the life of a Christian means to be a rebel! Everything that Christ taught was against the system, against the principles of the world. Christ is a rebel! So this makes every follower of Christ a rebel!
We have come to live in a world, where everything from educational degrees to sex is available for a price. We have come to live in a world where selfish gain is counted before the betterment of the nation. We have come to live in a world where saving trees is more important than stopping abortion. We have come to live in a world where everything that harm’s the body is being sold as a luxury. We have come to live in a world where it is alright to steal to get to the top. We have come to live in a world where safe sex is glorified more than virginity!
The direction in which our world is headed logically seems illogical. But the direction is clear, living as a Christian in such a world means we are swimming against the tide. Living as a Christian here means we have to stand tall, against a taller system, with the help of the Tallest of them all. Paul when writing to James clearly tell us that ‘Faith without deeds is useless’.
We may know every verse in the Bible, we may sing the loudest in our church, we may pray the longest within the church, and probably we may offer 50% of our monthly salary to the church. But all this shall be counted with our faith, and not with our deeds.
Christ spent most of His life on the streets, than in the Temple. His teachings dealt more with the way we live our life, than with what we should do in our church. Because Christ knew, that what comes out of a man decides if he is holy not what goes in. What we do in the world, our actions, speak more about our faith than what we say in the church.
If you are wondering how through all this we become a rebel, this is how. When people around us are bribing to get their work done what do we do? Do we bribe or do we like fools for Christ wait till the officer does the work for us? What do we do when our friends say let us drink and be merry? Do we drink or do we like fools for Christ say no? What do we do when our friends support homosexuality? Do we stand there and clap our hands or do we like fools for Christ make it clear that this behaviour is wrong? What do we do when we receive unwanted SMS jokes? Do we forward it or do we like fools for Christ tell the sender that we don’t want such SMS’s? What do we do when we get angry? Do we abuse or do we like fools for Christ express our aggression in a constructive way? Finally what do we do when we are defeated, when we have lost hope? Do we blame God or do we like fools for Christ run to God?
Gone are the days when being a Christian was a norm, a true Christian, would be counted as a rebel, a true Christian would not conform, but he would transform, a true Christian, would not follow the pattern, but he would lead the change, a true Christian would not make sense, but at the end when the heavens would open, everything that a true Christian did would make sense. If today we have to be called a Jesus generation, then we need to get radical, we need to be a rebel!
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