Sick Day

I woke up very early yesterday morning and spent most of the day violently ill and with a high fever. When I’m working, I tend to alternate between Fox, CNN, and CSPAN. Yesterday I surfed and by evening had the Comedy channel on. The remote was out of reach so I watched The Daily Show (which was funny) and The Colbert Report (which was pathetic.) Steven Colbert interviewed Madeleine Albright, who’s pushing her new book, The Mighty and The Almighty. The interview revealed, in spite of Mrs. Albright having been raised Catholic and married to an Episcopalian, a profound misunderstanding of Christianity. She suffers from the misapprehension that you can be a true Christian and yet not have a faith that permeates your life and impacts every action and decision you make. She seems to think that you can compartmentalize Christianity and yet be a true Christian.

The reason that non-Christians think that is true is Christians. They see the fish emblem on our cars while we disobey traffic laws, honk at and flip off other drivers. They see – especially here in New Orleans lately – people who profess Christianity breaking federal law by hiring illegal aliens. They see millions of people professing Christianity whose lives are not noticeably different from people who don’t profess Christianity. Small wonder they think the way they do.

We know that the existence of counterfeit money doesn’t invalidate genuine money. But Christians are – and should be – held to a higher standard. Our only protection, and our greatest form of evangelism, is to live lives that are above reproach. When we sin as we inevitably will, repentance should be immediate and as visible as the sin was. To whom much is given, much is expected.