Ashamed

Sometimes I dread going to get a haircut.  It has nothing to do with how my hair turns out.  In fact my hair is pretty simple to cut. When you work as hard as I do to make my hair look messy, sometimes a bad haircut helps.  No, the dread comes from the conversation that will more than likely take place with the hair stylist.  Let me summarize what this conversation usually looks like:




            
            Stylist: So, what do you do for a living?


            Me: I’m a youth pastor, how about you?


            Stylist: I’m a hair stylist, that’s why I’m cutting your hair.


            Me: Oh, yeah, that makes sense?


            Stylist: So how do you like being a youth pastor?

Me: I love it! I love working in the church, and working with teens, and serving God.

Stylist: Oh, that’s nice.  Let me tell you all of my hang-ups and my bitterness toward God and the church.  Then you can try to defend what you believe at the risk of making me angry and taking a chunk out of hair out of the top of your head with my scissors. 

Obviously that is a bit of an exaggeration, but as Christians, sharing our faith can be really tough.  As I read these verses in Romans, it caused me to ask myself the question: “If God’s grace is so great, why are we so embarrassed to tell people about it?”
Here’s what Paul says

Romans 1:14-17

¹⁴I am obligated both to Greeks and non-Greeks, both to the wise and the foolish. ¹⁵That is why I am so eager to preach the gospel also to you who are at Rome.

 ¹⁶I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile. ¹⁷For in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: "The righteous will live by faith."

Why is Paul so brazen and unashamed in his sharing of the gospel?  I came to the conclusion that he is unashamed because he really understands what the gospel is…the power of God for the Salvation of everyone who believes.


Let me explain what I mean.  Because we are all people with issues and baggage in our lives, we naturally tend to consider our baggage as part of our faith.  In reality, however, the two are unrelated entities that happen to coexist in our lives.  For example, you could have experienced God’s saving grace, but because you still struggle with sin, you feel unqualified to talk about your faith.  God’s grace is no less sufficient, but because of what comes with the package of Salvation in your own life, you feel like God’s grace somehow is less credible.  Another reason for the shame we exhibit is that the unsaved world has major hang-ups with the church. Frankly, they have good cause to view the church in the way they do.  Even though the church was established by Christ himself, it is made up of humans, who constantly find a way to stain our image.


If we are going to be eager and unashamed as Paul was, we need to give up the idea of defending the history of the Christian church and the politics of today’s church and instead preach the gospel.  I think of all the missed opportunities to share my faith over the years, and all the people that I could have reached with the gospel, and I only wish that I could have gotten over my baggage and shared my faith.  I’ve resolved this weekend to write a message to two different people from my past and really share my heart and my faith with them.  Pray that they will receive Christ as a result.


There are plenty of things that I’m ashamed about.  I’m ashamed of many of the things I’ve said, done, or been associated with, but there is no place for shame in the gospel of Jesus Christ.  Would you resolve with me to be bold in sharing the hope of Jesus Christ with a world who desperately needs some good news?