A Letter to my Christian Friends in the West

My dear fellow western Christian – 

We are finally coming of age.

After hundreds of years of relative comfort, after generations of being well thought of and feeling culturally accepted and looked favorably upon, we are finally, finally coming into our own.

We are finally no longer the in the majority.

We are finally no longer the dominant ones.

We are finally feeling the stain of dislike.

We are finally experiencing what Jesus meant when He called us to be aliens in a world that would not understand us.

Some of us are angry about it, miffed that our rights are being threatened.

Many of us are struggling to grapple with it.

A few of us are insisting on yelling about it one Facebook update at a time.

We used to look at the rest of the world and feel sorry for them.

We used to take pride in living in the land of the free.

We used to consider ourselves blessed. God’s favor was on us and our great nation and lucky was anyone who was granted the privilege of participating in our comfort seeking security loving approval hungry ways.

What we didn’t notice was that we were wrong.

While we were working so hard to fit into the world, our brothers and sisters around the world were learning to stand strong.

While we were striving to make it, our persecuted siblings were striving to praise him.

While we were running hard after our next vacation and promotion, Christians all over the world were running hard after Jesus.

They grew stronger while we became weak.

They grew lean while we became soft.

And now – now we are finally coming of age.

We are finally waking up to our destiny.

In a world that prefers the dark, we’ve been exposed as different.

We’ve been outed as strangers in our land.

We’ve been recognized for the misfits we were always meant to be.

It’s time we grow up.

It’s time we decide.

The choices we make today will reveal who we really are.

Our choices will reveal who we love.

Some of us will turn back, unwilling to bear the cost.

Some of us will try to hide, preferring the safety of anonymity.

But many of us will rise.

We are awakening to our destiny.

We are coming of age.

We’ve been given a gift.

We’ve been set free from our own wants and our desires.

We’ve been given a second chance.

Will you take it?

Will you prove to be faithful?