“Microphones”

I was at a conference once when the keynote speaker shared an experience that had happened to her at a previous conference. In order for all attending to hear, she was given a wireless lapel microphone which she attached to her clothing.

 The presentation was going well and it came time for a break. After announcing the break, the speaker made her way to the restroom to answer the call of nature. In the middle of that rather private moment one of the conference hosts ran into the bathroom yelling, “Your microphone’s on! Your microphone’s on!”

 As Christians, we often forget that in many ways our microphone is always on. The microphone is on when we go to lunch after church on Sunday and are rude to the wait staff at the restaurant. The microphone is on when we exchange harsh words with someone who cuts in line in front of us at a store. The microphone is on when we yell at our spouse or children. The microphone is on when we treat any person, made in the image of God, with anything less than the love of Jesus Christ.

 A Christian cannot choose to turn the microphone on and off. If we truly are followers of Jesus Christ, then the mic is always on, whether we want it to be or not. The words we say and the way we treat others may be the only Jesus others experience.

 In the third chapter of James the author writes, “With it [the tongue] we bless the Lord and Father, and with it we curse those are made in the likeness of God. From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brothers and sisters, this ought not to be so.”

 Author Brennan Manning reads a statement at the beginning of the song “What If I Stumble” by the group DC Talk. He says, “The single greatest cause of atheism in the world today is Christians who acknowledge Jesus with their lips, then walk out the door and deny Him by their lifestyles. That is what an unbelieving world simply finds unbelievable.”

 Don’t acknowledge Jesus with your lips but deny him by the way you live your life. Remember that as Christians our microphone is always on, and those who don’t know Jesus Christ are listening.