“These words I speak to you are not incidental additions to your life, homeowner improvements to your standard of living. They are foundational words, words to build a life on.”

-Matthew 7:24

Something happened to me last week that has never happened before–I received a call from a telemarketer and felt sorry for them.

It wasn’t a keen young Indian calling himself ‘Fred’ or ‘Chet’; this was a young Australian promoting an upcoming business conference in Sydney. She was not excited, was clearly reading from a script, and worse yet, was speaking in a monotone. The conference sessions she mentioned actually sounded pretty decent—some quality topics and qualified speakers. But this young lady was obviously not a believer in what she was selling—and it showed. Because she didn’t think she had a good product to sell, she convinced me in the first 30 seconds that it wasn’t worth my time.

Her problem was not that her product was no good; on the contrary, it was a good conference (I did some research later). Her problem was that she was not convinced it was any good, and it showed. She wasn’t a personal consumer of what she wanted me to buy.

Our conversation brought to mind the current discussion and debate around evangelism in today’s postmodern culture. People today seem to be hungrier than ever for what is genuine and authentic, and have radar for what is contrived and forced.

My reflection gave me pause. Sometimes when I am offered the chance to discuss life as a Christ-follower with a non-Christian friend it can feel forced and unnatural. I may speak of the ‘easy yoke and light burden’ (Matt 11:28-30) that I have experienced as one of Jesus’ disciples, and talk of how He takes away my weariness and striving and gives me rest—these are facts I know to be true—but the reality of my last few days or weeks is that I have not been living a life that is particularly easy, light and restful.

And it shows. It shows in my tone, my face, my attitude, and my eyes.

No matter what correct or practiced words I use in these precious opportunities to share God’s story with someone else, I am not always a consumer of what I am selling, and it shows.

I am learning that a passion for evangelism must be combined with an inner life that reflects the words I speak. We of the evangelical stream are often exhorted (rightly) in our churches to be ‘bold’ and have ‘maximum impact’, but are not often taught well how to live the kind of life and develop the kinds of habits that lend power and authenticity to our words. We are taught (correctly) that a ‘power encounter’ is what happens when God moves sovereignly as we engage in evangelism and prayer, but we are not simultaneously taught that words spoken from a wellspring of experience and walked-out life with Jesus have a similar kind of power that is both natural and supernatural.

A significant cross section of Christians today are comfortable stating what they ‘believe’ about Jesus (Son of God, death, resurrection, atonement for sins), but in actual practice, what they ‘believe’ about Jesus has little or no practical effect on their everyday lives. The result? The person of Jesus Christ is largely irrelevant to how they go about their daily business, perform their jobs, run their families, and relate to their friends. They believe that Jesus has ‘done something for them’, but aren’t convinced He has much to teach them about how to live their lives (Matt 28:20).

And it shows. Being a follower of Christ becomes something that is distilled down only to a ticket to heaven, and results in our being at a loss to explain with any authenticity why following Jesus now is something that should interest those who observe us.

When we are not consumers or practitioners of the kind of life Jesus encouraged his followers to lead (Matt 5-8), our efforts to share our faith with others will always feel contrived and like hard work. We may be speaking facts (Jesus offers us the way of easy yoke and light burden), but if the life of the easy yoke and light burden is not one we’re experiencing, it is painfully obvious.

What does the way of the easy yoke and light burden look like? Jesus describes the characteristics of this kind of person in his Discourse on the Hillside in Matthew 5-8. He shows us clearly that apprenticeship to him results in our being the kind of people who are learning not to hold a grudge (Matt 5:22), do not use words to manipulate others (Matt 5:37), are not critical of others’ faults (Matt 7:3), are learning that all things come by God’s hand (Matt 7:7), and are learning that good ‘fruit’ results naturally from a good interior life (Matt 7:18). In short, we are becoming the kind of people who are no longer bound and shackled by the habits and ways of the world, but are learning to walk in the free and easy cadence of God’s grace.

Are you are filled with anxiety and pressure at the thought of sharing your story with a co-worker or friend? Deep down, are you not very confident that this ‘abundant life’ (John 10:10) is actually the light yoke and easy burden that Jesus says it is? You’re in good company. Hear your ever-present Teacher gently calling you to trust Him, and begin to engage in the habits and practices that He lived and taught.

As you begin to tentatively foray into habits like solitude, prayer, fasting, and service, remember that these are not bullet points on a resume that will get you a job as Jesus’ follower, they are simply the things that Jesus did and taught. As Jesus’ apprentice, you are simply learning to live your life as Jesus would if He were you. This is what it means to be a follower of Jesus.

For Further Action: Spend some time in the next week meditatively reading Matthew 5-8. Read it prayerfully and slowly, and consider committing it to memory over the next several weeks. I heard a man whose walk with the Lord I respect deeply say recently that he believes the most influential habit he has developed over 30+ years as a follower of Jesus is the memorization of Scripture. He considered it on par and inseparable from his prayer life. If the thought of memorizing scripture brings back bad memories of rude people quoting scripture they took completely out of context at you, forgive them, release them, and consider the context of Jesus words, ‘you have heard it said….but I say to you…’. The first century Jews that Jesus was speaking to in Galilee were intimately familiar with the Hebrew scriptures, and most of them would have had a good portion of them memorized—it was simply the practice of the day. The easy and cheap availability of books in our day has rendered the need and habit of memorization largely redundant, but it hasn’t affected at all the truth that God speaks to us regularly through his revealed character in Scripture.