What I Say

I recently watched an interview with John Lennox. Lennox is Professor of Mathematics at Oxford University, and a renowned apologist. He often debates atheists in the area of Christian apologetics, and many of his opponents’ responses can become quite crass, even angry. During the interview, Lennox said that rather than become frustrated with his opponent during a debate or lash out with a retort, he makes every attempt to befriend the person even while arguing the points during the debate. He has subsequently received correspondence from many people who have turned to Christ after witnessing debates he has participated in. They informed Lennox that it was not so much what he said during the debates, but how he said it; it was his attitude, his actions during the debate which conveyed the message of Christ.

I am reminded of a quote by Ralph Waldo Emerson, “Don’t say things. What you are stands over you the while, and thunders so that I cannot hear what you say to the contrary.”[i] What we normally hear is a rephrasing of this quote,

“Your actions speak so loudly, I cannot hear what you are saying.”

While our “logos” does indeed effect what others hear in our message, it is our “ethos” that is the ultimate conveyer of that message to another person. Our credibility is the vessel through which people either believe, or disbelieve what we say about Christ. People are very perceptive, (when they want to be) and they can see through the façade and discern if there is a dichotomy present. This is why it is so important to not just say we are Jesus’ disciples, but to actually be one. It is the one who keeps His commandments that displays his love for Him and it is that which enables another person to see Him. However, if a contradiction exists, their eyes will shift to us in attempt to discern and reveal the discrepancy leaving no room for Jesus. I tremble at the thought of how many have seen me rather than Him due to my moodiness, my impatience with someone, or my innate ability to portray the posterior of the common equine. If I live like hell, why would anyone believe what I had to say about heaven? There is so much at stake, in fact, it is of eternal importance.

I think about the following excerpts daily, and I honestly don’t believe I think on them enough. I share them with you in hopes that you allow them to permeate your mind and have their way with you. We should each desire that they beleaguer our thoughts and cause us to give pause to the way in which we live and treat others. They are not just sobering, but they place the lion’s share of responsibility for our brother back upon our own shoulders, as it should be. We are after all, our brother’s keeper.

“It is a serious thing to live in a society of possible gods and goddesses, to remember that the dullest most uninteresting person you can talk to may one day be a creature which, if you saw it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship, or else a horror and a corruption such as you now meet, if at all, only in a nightmare. All day long we are, in some degree helping each other to one or the other of these destinations. It is in the light of these overwhelming possibilities, it is with the awe and the circumspection proper to them, that we should conduct all of our dealings with one another, all friendships, all loves, all play, all politics. There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilizations – these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub, and exploit – immortal horrors or everlasting splendors.” C.S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory

“When I come to my evening prayers and try to reckon up the sins of the day, nine times out of ten the most obvious one is some sin against charity; I have sulked or snapped or snubbed or stormed. And the excuse that immediately comes to my mind is that the provocation was so sudden and unexpected; I was caught off my guard, I had no time to collect myself. Now that may be an extenuating circumstance as regards those particular acts, they would obviously be worse if they had been deliberate and premeditated. On the other hand, surely what a man does when he is taken off his guard is the best evidence for what sort of man he is? Surely what pops out before the man has time to put on a disguise is the truth? If there are rats in the cellar you are most likely to see them if you go in suddenly. But suddenness does not create the rats, it only prevents them from hiding. In the same way the suddenness of the provocation does not make me an ill-tempered man; it only shows what an ill-tempered man I am.” C S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

C. Klingle

[i] Ralph Waldo Emerson, “Social Aims,” Letters and Social Aims (vol. 8 of The Complete Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson), p. 96 (1917).