John the Baptist, Max Lucado ( A Gentle Thunder ) notes, was a public relations disaster. Mark 1:6 tells us that John “wore clothes made from camel’s hair, had a leather belt around his waist, and ate locusts and wild honey.” Yet many people were drawn to John’s message, confessed their sins, and were baptized in the Jordan River. How was this possible if, in the words of a familiar phrase, ‘clothes make the man’?
This was possible because John the Baptist’s life matched his words. As with John, people are watching our actions more than they are listening to our words. Max summarizes: “It’s the life that earns the name, not the name that creates the life. . . . To call yourself a child of God is one thing. To be called a child of God by those who watch your life is another thing altogether.”
Our ministry downsizing or position loss has had and may continue to have profound, devastating effects on us. As we proceed onward through our transitional, Land Between time, do our actions and words manifest increasing evidence of God’s transforming growth in our faith life?
For those new to the web site, there is a previous Short Meditation on this topic entitled “Turning Darkness into Light”.
