Almost all of us are second or third generation Christians who have been brought up in Christian families. As children, whenever our parents took the name of God, we would tremble and fear; we imagined God to be a mighty and strong warrior-clad giant with immense power who lived in the sky. Although that image was childish and blunt, it paid tribute to God’s greatness and holiness because we revered and respected our Creator not simply in action, but even in word and thought.
If we take a look at the present generation, the picture is a stark contrast to the ‘good old days.’ Taking the name of God in every little conversation as one swears in the name of the Most High is a common occurrence. The name of God is Holy; and yet, we mere humans take His name as though it were any other name. We have created an environment where the name of God is treated as any other mundane name. Most children are not afraid that God would be displeased for using His name in vain. And how did they come to possess such a mind-set? Does the fault not lie with us – the adults, for teaching them unconsciously in the first place? If anyone is in denial here, I humbly address the casethat irks me on a daily basis.
WhatsApp and Facebook – those twin towers of the social media that is both helping build and destroy lives are being used as the agents of advertising about God. While there are genuine cases where people are truly blessed by real-life testimonies here, there are many more cases where people are emotionally blackmailed to ‘forward’ or ‘like’ messages by compulsion. The tag that follows is usually in this manner, “Forward to 15 groups or else God will send bad luck to you for 15 years!” “Scroll down and type ‘Amen’ and you will receive blessings” and so on and so forth.I am torn between indignation and amusement when confronted with such messages. Obviously I am indignant because the creation is dictating and predicting what the Creator would do or would not do; and amusement because I simply cannot wrap my head around the fact that anyone truly believes such…for lack of a better word…nuisance.
God’s thoughts are higher than our thoughts. God’s ways are higher than our ways. Since when can man – who is but dust – dictate how God – the one enthroned in heaven – would use His power? We have reduced God to such a point that He would seem just like any of us, whose actions are usually directed based on our emotions. The One who transcends time and space is used as a means to prove a point or take a stand, albeit in an carefree manner. If we pause even for a span of 10 seconds before forwarding or liking such messages, I for one believe that we would realise the utter foolishness behind the act.
Moreover, this practise does not possess the sanction of the Bible. No where can we find reference in support of such behaviour. No doubt, the context has changed nowadays; but we have not been commanded to share anything related to the Gospel to a fixed number of people, or else…
I hold the belief that when we talk about God we need to truly mean it from our heart. It is not out of compulsion because we are afraid He will kill us off for remaining silent, but it is out of love for God. God has given each one of us the gift of free will. We are called to worship and rejoice with Him freely because we want to; if He wanted, He could have easily pre-programmed every human to love Him our whole lives when He intricately formed and fashioned us in the womb of our mothers.
One of the Ten Commandments in Exodus 20 explicitly states we are not to use the name of the Lord in vain. I believe that we unintentionally violate this commandment when we tag God’s name to every unauthentic post in a repetitive manner either out of fear of consequences or simply for the heck of it.
My dear brothers and sisters in Christ, I encourage and urge you all not to blindly follow the ways of the world. It is now high time for the true believers to uphold the name of being a Christian; we need to wear this particular trademark seriously. Let us not get carried away with the idle banter propagated by the social media lest we truly incur the wrath of God!
