What do people see in you?

As a Christian, one of the worst thing to hear is "oh, I didn't know you are a Christian"... I have to admit, I've heard this a few times in the past and every time I hear this, it is like a stab in my heart. It makes me question if I've been living out my faith, it makes me wonder whether I've been verbal enough about my belief, and it makes me examine my own actions and words. Paul reminded us in Ephesians,

"You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness." Ephesians 4:22-24

If we are a new creation, we should be different from how we formerly were. We should be changed for the better, we should be light and salt of the world, but the truth is, there are still times when people can't see Christ in us. Why is that? Because during those times, we are not letting Jesus on the throne of our heart, we are our old self, not a changed being. It is easy to act how we are suppose to act when everything is flowing smoothly, but it is much harder to uphold our belief and principles when we are stressed or pressured. Someone very wise once told me about the "toothpaste principle of life". She said that it is only under pressure who we actually are comes out. It's like a toothpaste, only when pressure is exerted, whatever is inside comes out. Hopefully as we learn and grow, more of Jesus will come out, and less of us.

"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come." 2 Corinthians 5:17

On the same note, I read in Daily Bread recently about the importance of being an open book for God. What does it mean to be an open book? It means living for God, letting Him be the center of our life. It's asking ourselves, if someone were to record our life in a book, would they be able to find Jesus in the pages? If He is in the pages, how often does He appear in our story? Paul reminded us who we are in 2 Corinthians,

"You yourselves are our letter, written on our hearts, known and read by everybody. You show that you are a letter from Christ, the result of our ministry, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts." 2 Corinthians 3:2-3

Each one of us is a living book for God. What we say and how we act is a testimony for what He has done in our life. We have a choice, we could either live our life as we were, or we could let the spirit of Him shine through us. Of course, this is not something we could just wake up one day and do. But I do think one of the keys of achieving this is our willingness to try. I don't think we are expected to succeed in this right away, in fact, I don't even think it's possible to ever fully succeed in this. The bible is filled with  people who strive to allow Jesus to shine through their life, but they all failed one time or another. For example, one of the disciple James is nicknamed the Son of Thunder because of his bad temper, when he is angry, I don't think people can see Jesus through him. Yet, we can see his change over time. In his letter to the twelve tribs in the Dispersion, James actually reminded the members of the church how important it is to control their anger because anger does not produce the righteousness of God (James 1:19-20).

I don't think Jesus expect us to be a perfect living testimony for Him all the time, He knows we are not perfect, but I think He does want us to be the best we can be, to allow the changes to take place, and to allow Him to slowly transform us. Then when people see us, they will know that there is something different about us. They will be able to see the transformation that's taken place in us. If they were to reading our life like a book, they would be able to find Jesus in the pages.