“I AM A JESUS FREAK!!”

Just wanted to say that out loud, sorry 😀

I write children’s summer camp material every year for churches where we talk about stories from the Bible and teach children how to fulfil their purpose in life.

I wanted to gather a few names of Believers in Christ who have made noteworthy contributions all over the world for an activity. I got a zillion names from everywhere but my country, India. Then I found an interesting site created by two non-Indians on the names of noteworthy Indian Christians and there were so many in every field (science, arts, business, etc), so understandably, I was super excited to see this. I tried to dig in deeper to find how they met Jesus but to my surprise, only a handful of those amazing people had declared their faith publicly. In fact, forget finding their testimony; I did not even know they were Christians until I found their names on that particular site.

That got me thinking.

Why is it hard for us to say we love Jesus openly when we really do and it is not a lie?

How long do we want to have a secret relationship and not bring it out into the open and celebrate!

Is it because we are ashamed of the gospel?

Are we worried about the impact it would have on our careers and networking?

Or are we ashamed of our imperfections/ low performance that we think we bring shame to Jesus if we said He is our friend?

Or do we blame the mockers that surround us even from our own circles?

What if God did the same to us when we go to heaven and stand before the throne? The Bible says, on Judgement day, all the people ever born will stand before Jesus the judge to be given their reward (heaven) or reap their punishment (eternal death). Imagine this with me – you and I are standing with countless people around us. We are waiting for the angel to call us. Let’s say you are called first (you will definitely hear a sigh of relief from me 😀 ). You would anxiously stagger toward the judgement seat. At that moment, Jesus gives a blank stare and declares, “I know you not!” and then gives you a secret wink (remember a wink only you noticed, not even me!) saying, “let’s keep our relationship a secret”. You might yell about every moment you spent with Jesus and how disloyal he is to you now. But nothing will work. I wonder how quickly you will be escorted out of the premise to the eternal doom based on Jesus’ words “I know you not!”. I would surely faint out of a panic attack (if that is possible as a spirit-being without a body and all), being terrified that I won’t make it if you did not.

Peter comes to mind. He was with Jesus for three and half years and when the time came for him to prove his loyalty, he said, “I know Him not! Well, we could argue that this was not the ideal situation to prove his loyalty, he might be have been killed if he did and so he took the smart way out – denied Jesus and averted a hypothetical death sentence. However, if that was how Jesus looked at it, He would not have warned him beforehand. If, on the other hand, what Peter did was not wrong, he would not have wept bitterly when he realized what he had done. The guilt was so heavy that he got into serious depression even after meeting with the risen Jesus multiple times. It took a personal encounter with Jesus to bring him back to life, mentally and emotionally.

What about me? I’d be a hypocrite if I said I’ve always been brave enough to declare my relationship with Jesus. More often than not I have hid His light under a bushel. But there are a few times I prayed for courage like those followers in Acts and shouted out my faith from rooftops. This is one such moment I would like to declare how much I love Jesus.

I am a Software Engineer with 9 years of experience. I started with Infosys in 2013. Since then I have worked with Edgeverve, Morgan Stanley and I am currently with Standard & Poor (S&P).

I pray every day. I read my Bible every day. Before a call, a demo or a meeting, I whisper a prayer, “Jesus, please help me”. And He does! When I am stuck with a JIRA ticket for days, I again say, “God sorry I should have called on You earlier. But I need your help”. And He does! Out of nowhere, I find the root cause. Sometimes He takes me to the right site (mind you, I would have been struggling for days already), or sometimes to the right section of the code where the issue is. No workplace is without its share of office politics – I have been mocked; hurt by people I trusted, and pushed/pulled off the ladder so many times. My go-to person in all those moments has been Jesus. I would weep angrily, sometimes even scream, “Jesus, do something!”. He does! He would calm me and turn all my animal instincts to tear down the office into this soft kitty who would smile and purr, “Meow?” He makes me a better person every day. I have lacked nothing hanging out with him. Being His friend just makes me enjoy life even more. He knows my flaws and still loves me. I have been afraid to call myself a Christian before colleagues because I have thought “they know my weaknesses. Won’t I bring shame to Jesus if I said He is my friend?”. But then He reminds me that He hung out with people who were called “sinners” during his time on Earth. He then transformed them. People mocked Him even then for being a “friend of sinners”. So he doesn’t mind being called my friend (Remember we are talking about me – possibly the biggest sinner of all). I just wish I were more loyal to him.

So today, I would like to place this challenge before you, If you are a friend of Jesus.
– Declare your love for Jesus openly at least to one person this week.

You might be laughed at, labelled “Holy! Holy!” or “religious” or even rejected as a friend. But we owe it to Him for what He has done for us – He DIED for us! What is the worst that can happen to us?

What are your thoughts on this? Looking forward to reading your comments! 🙂