How often, in little ways, do we deny the significance of Christ? His role in our lives? The way He speaks to us? What He means to us? I would venture to say far too often.
Obsessed with courtesy, political correctness, and social status, we fear speaking with the anticipation of offending someone, anyone, who may not like what we have to say; we fear honesty and reality, expecting others to receive it poorly and be hurt--or worse, to view us differently, as weak and out of control. Above all, we fear admitting we are not enough for ourselves; we fear communicating this to other people.
However, the truly sad thing about this is simple: we are all not enough for ourselves—all incomplete and incapable of life on our own. Yet we push and fight daily to deny this fact, puff ourselves up, and fill our lives with lies about how we are nothing but self-sufficient—thus, leaving everyone around us seeing a lie of a life and feeling utterly inadequate about their own inadequacies.
As Christians, we must stop denying the significance of Christ in our lives—our total dependence on Him—because this lie hurts not only us but those around us. The lies we tell about our own sufficiency make others feel altogether insufficient. We must stop trying to carry our crosses on our own because in doing so, we deny the power and inclusivity of The Cross to others.
How many times have we expelled “small” lies so as to avoid the topic of Christ in our daily lives? Saying we overslept instead of admitting we were late because of a few minutes spent in desperate prayer. Saying we are bored when we quit our careers instead of admitting that God has been calling us to something more for a while. Or perhaps worse, how many times have we ignored the gentle prodding of the Spirit in hopes of maintaining some polished exterior? Ignored the call to pray for someone who we fear may not receive it well. Ignored the call to bring Jesus into a conversation. Ignored the call to confess a struggle or even to ask for help. Over and over we lie, we ignore, we pretend we’re okay, and for what? To hide how truly broken we are? To make others feel they are more broken than the rest?
As Christians we must realize that this is not the way to lead others to the One who keeps us together. After all, if we appear to have it all together—if we appear totally self-sustained and self-satisfied--then what is the point of the Sustainer who is all-satisfying? If we choose to pretend like Christ is no big deal—like He is not everything to us—of course others will also perceive Him in that manner.
So we have got to stop denying the significance of Christ in our lives and start giving Him recognition for all that He is and all that He does. We must stop letting fears of poor-reception or misunderstanding or social shortcomings keep us from being open to Christ speaking through us or from expressing how thoroughly Christ is impacting our lives. In other words, we must start living lives that represent our undisputed dependence on Christ—lives that reveal the presence of Christ in all things at all times, giving Him recognition for who He is and inviting others to experience the same.