Thursday night’s REAL Men event at First Baptist Church of Columbia inspired me. Four young gamecock football players, led by star running back Marcus Lattimore, discussed their faith on and off the field. All four said that they use their talents to glorify God and to spread his message to their friends, teammates and fans.
Center T.J. Johnson said that every time he snaps the ball, he does so for Christ, asking for “hands for war and fingers to fight. (Psalm 144:1).” If our center snaps the ball for Christ, why am I not blogging, tweeting and facebooking for Christ? I have a platform to reach people online and I work with the people that make laws for our state and nation. If I do not work for the glory of Christ, what am I working for? Money, fame, power?
During his Sermon on the Mount, Jesus proclaims “blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness (Matthew 5:6).” I thirst for righteousness, but my slip-ups have been widely noted and they embarrass me. And it isn’t because I selfishly do not want folks to know me as someone who constantly curses and drinks. It is because I do not want to be seen as a Christian hypocrite. When I approach people about Christ, I do not want them throwing back in my face “I’ve read your text messages with Will Folks.”
Just two months ago I got completely wasted drunk during an episode of Pub Politics. We played power hour and after 6 beers in 30 minute, I started running my mouth about everybody in South Carolina politics. It was childish, unprofessional, illogical, unintelligent and worst, unchristian.
Two days later I stumbled across Matthew 7:21-23, where again, during the Sermon on the Mount Jesus says:
“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’
DANG! That pretty much sucks of a whole lot of us. It is simply not enough to just call yourself a Christian.
As I arrived at the office later that day, I instructed Daniel and Michael to not post the episode. So now two episodes of Pub Politics remain hidden, the Jake Knotts “raghead” show and my drunken power hour episode.
Thursday evening I arrived home after the REAL Men event and Elizabeth says “have you seen this thing about our Congressmen praying? They are getting attacked all over the Internet.” I searched Twitter and saw liberals across the country going after the South Carolina congressional delegation for praying during the debt ceiling debate. Now, this is not an attack on liberals. I know plenty of hardcore faithful liberals. This is just to say that all the attacks I saw came from liberals, some of which are good friends who have not been off my mind since.
Make sure to read these comments also and the attacks on our religion will become much more apparent. Could you imagine the public outcry if these comments were about any other religion? It is because Christians have made themselves a target. We “Bible thumbers” talk about God and then do stupid things like drop F bombs in text messages. We look like hypocrites. It puts a giant target on our backs and most harmful, it turns people away from the Lord.
Like Marcus Lattimore, I am going to start living my life differently. I am not a beast on the football field and I will never win the Heisman, but I do have a blog, a company, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, a video show, a TV segment and an unmatched level of energy and drive. This is your warning: I’m going to use my platform to glorify God. If that offends you, stop following me.
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