I saw someone on the bus this morning that reminded me of a story.

A Story

When I was saved three and a half years ago, I had a lot of changing to do. Some of it was obvious. I had to give up smoking pot and rolling on ecstacy. I had to break up with my non-believing boyfriend. (That was perhaps the first time I'd ever felt the voice of the Holy Spirit speaking directly to me, not the voice of my mom or my guilty conscience. The drugs I clearly recognized had to go--that was part of the deal in the first place.) But I had been so lost, I had no concept of how all-encompassing this change was to be.

I went out with some friends one night to a club. I wore a cute miniskirt, knee-high black boots and a little top. I got my groove on all over the place. I danced with friends, and I danced with strangers. This one particular guy, "Bob" we'll call him, the guy on the bus today, was pretty cute. We got to talking, and I thought we might become friends. We probably exchanged phone numbers and stuff.

A few days later I went to the cafeteria to kill some time between classes. At this point, I'd only been saved for a few weeks. I was incredibly eager to read the Bible, and there in the cafeteria, I pulled out my Bible to start reading some more. What better way could I spend my time? A few minutes later I sensed a presence behind me. I looked back and saw "Bob." I invited him to sit down.

"What are you reading? The Bible? You a Christian?" I was delighted to say I was. I loved the way it felt to say so and not be ashamed. But he wasn't smiling. "Girl, you can't be playing both ways."

What?

"You can't be going out dancing the way you were the other night, and then read your Bible later. It don't work like that. You gotta be one or the other." I stared at him blankly. I don't understand what I did wrong, I said. He went on to say that if I'm gonna be a Christian, then I have to realize I can't still act like I'm not a Christian. "Those moves-- a Christian girl can't be doing moves like that."

I was ashamed. I explained I hadn't been a Christian long, and I didn't realize that shaking my groove thang was gonna hurt my witness. Luckily "Bob" understood.



Now, I'm not saying to every Christian girl in the world booty dancing is a sin. I think its one of those things you have to pray about yourself and let God give you his opinion. But I discovered something then that still affects me today: Everything we do we should do for the glory of God. I didn't have such snazzy words for it then, but indeed, we reflect Christ. Everything we do reflects Christ because the world is watching us, waiting to see what we do. We should do all we can to not cause someone else to stumble. Just recently I realized something I've done has caused another fellow Christian to stumble. Something I felt no conviction about has caused someone else, who appears to have had a conviction, to act in the same way. Our lives if we are children of the Almighty God are no longer about us. They now exist as vessels for spreading the gospel. And in the same way that the bratty kids you are watching reflect back on their parents, everything we do- booty dancing, swearing, fighting- reflects back on our Parent.