Last night I learned of a website called www.isidewith.com. It
is a quiz you can take that asks you questions about a range of social and
political issues and how important they are to you, and then tells you which
candidates you most closely align with. I’ll be honest, I was surprised at the
results once I finished.
As I was answering questions on topics such as abortion,
conservation, and education reform, I found myself struck by a question: “what
does it matter what I believe?” Here I was spending a considerable amount of
time essentially logging my own opinions on many important issues but I
wondered: ‘what does my opinion matter?” If I say I feel strongly about
something yet don’t actually work out what I believe in my life; don’t do
anything about it, how strongly can I actually feel about it?
It reminds me of the words James wrote to the early
Christians:
What use is it, my
brethren, if someone says he has faith but he has no works? Can that faith save
him? If a brother or sister is without clothing and in need of daily food, and
one of you says to them, “go in peace, be warmed and filled,” and yet you do
not give them what is necessary for their body, what use it that? Even so
faith, if it has no works, is dead, being by itself. – James 2:14-17
James asserts that our faith is tied directly to our
actions. In fact, our actions validate our beliefs. James asks ‘how can you say
that you have faith if you turn your back on the poor and needy?’ If we say we
feel strongly about one issue or another, we need to ask ourselves: ‘what are
we doing about it?’ If I feel strongly about abortion, what am I doing to help
others avoid it? If I say I stand for education, what am I doing to help
encourage it in others? If I claim to desire financial accountability, how am I
stewarding the finances allotted to me?
Looking at it more broadly, if we call ourselves Christ
followers, how are we living out that assertion? What difference is our faith
making? What is it causing us to do? What changes is it producing in us? What
compassion is it growing? What service? Is it creating a desire for the Word? A
desire for justice? Compassion for those who are far away? In short, what
difference does it make? Are our beliefs merely words? Are they simply a
checklist of things we assent to? Or are they something more? Are they the
defining focus of our lives? Is Christ a name that you tack onto a profile or
is he the direction that drives you?
It is time to vote again. It is time to vote not merely with
our ballots but with our lives; to become men and women who do not merely
believe, but who live out that belief through action. We can say we side for many things, but what
do our actions say we stand with? Do we side with Christ?
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