Passion

Over the last few years, I have become increasingly aware of the fact that those who become Christians late in life, those who are not raised in Christian homes, seem to have a passion that is lacking in those who are raised in the Christian culture. I don't mean that those born into a Christian family don't love God to the same degree, or even that they are lacking in the spiritual walk, but there is not as much urgency, there does not seem to be as much of a desire to reach out to others, or even to lead others in their walk. They are not as excited about Christianity.

While this may not be a major problem, the tendency of complacency of these Christians, the tendency to take for granted their faith, and all of things that God has given them, seems to lead to the occurrence of those young people that leave the church when they become adults. When something is as much a part of your life as Christianity is when you are raised with it, you tend to forget that it is not something that all people are able to experience, and even fail to note the necessity of it in your life.

You also lack the memories, or even the knowledge, of what life is like without Christ. A friend of mine recently shared her testimony, and the difference between her life now, and what it was before she became a Christian is vastly different. It also explains her passion for God, and desire to help others grow in him.

What really makes me think, though, is the fact that this complacency often pervades our Christian walk. It prevents us from desiring to grow in God, because we don't really know what it is like to be without Him, so why should we put in the effort to know Him more? There is no real basis of comparison, so even having an understanding of what growth looks like is difficult. There is an inability to see a difference because, really, there was no difference in how we lived before we became Christians, to how we lived after we became Christians.

This lack of difference seems to not only make growth hard, but, in some cases, leads to a lack of understanding of what growth looks like. I am not saying that children should not be raised with Christian principles; that would obviously be wrong; what I am saying is that there should be more done to show existing Christians what a walk with Christ actually looks like, instead of focusing only on outreach. How can we reach others, if we ourselves do not truly understand what a life with Christ looks like?