College Bound Infant

This week I have made some major adjustments in my life. These adjustments were a necessity because I started a new job, and I started going to school again after sitting out for a semester. Both these new environments are, shall I say, hostile to a Christian lifestyle. I’m not sure hostile is the right word, but they definitely are not places that encourage a Christian lifestyle. The job I’m working is a warehouse, cursing is the norm. I won’t go into everything but, I can safely say, that it’s not the cleanest place…and I’m not talking about dirty floors. The school I’m now attending is a secular school. A huge difference from the small Christian college and highschool I attended previously. The first thing I noticed was the smoking, now, I had expected there to be smoking, but I was blown away by how many people were just sitting around outside destroying their lungs. Another thing that I noticed in both my biology and chemistry class, was evolution. I knew that that evolution was going to be presented as fact going into this school, but I didn’t know how much. Now, all of you reading this that are/have attended a secular institute, you’re probably thinking, who is this guy, people smoking and evolution, what’s the big deal. Well, these are the things that got me thinking. And it was through this thinking that I came up with this analogy.

Ok, think of a baby, the baby has a toy. What happens when you try to take the toy away? The baby holds on to it, he wont let it go, he screams an fights to keep it. Now what happens when you leave the toy alone? Sure the baby might play with it for a while, maybe even hours, but eventually, the baby will lose interest. This is like a Christian. In an all Christian environment, where no one is trying to “take away” the Christian’s faith (ideals, beliefs, etc.) the Christian tends to loose interest. But put that person in a place where that faith is challenged, you have a whole new person. That person will defend his faith to the end (granted that it is a genuine faith). In writing this, I began to think of the various times the church has been persecuted over the years. I believe that what I just mentioned is one of the two main reasons why the church has persisted over the years. The other being that with persecution, any nominal Christians won’t stick around. Another thing to consider with this analogy is the level of the Christian. The Bible talks about the “babies” who can’t handle the heavy theology. This isn’t talking about real babies (although they can’t…for obvious reasons…) it’s talking about new/undeveloped Christians. I think that the undeveloped Christians are the ones who are more likely to “loose interest in the toy” than those who are mature in their faith.

I’m going to leave everyone with this last tidbit. If you are like me, you grew up in a Christian home, went to a Christian school, you never had any non-Christian friends, then get out there. Don’t stay in your little shell. Get involved in something outside of your Christian circle. I’m not telling you to get involved in a sinful activity. I’m suggesting that you get involved with sinful people. But what ever you do! Balance the time you spend in that place. With the time you spend in that place/with that person, spend time in church, spend time with Christian people, and most of all, spend time with God and in His Word. And if you find yourself being overly influenced by the secular people, get out of that situation.

-Matt