Observation: The prophet Nahum encourages the people to celebrate the fall of Nineveh, a capital city of the oppressive Assyrian Empire, which has been dominating the region. What jumps out at me is the joyful greeting of "the one who brings good tidings, who proclaims peace."
Application: Would you try a thought experiment with me? I'm going to write a declarative statement, with no punctuation and no indication of a tone of voice, and you tell me how you hear it. Here goes:
Oh here come the Christians
First, what context were you picturing? The site of a natural disaster? A local food pantry? A protest on a hot-button issue? Your favorite brunch restaurant? The comments section of a local news story? Does it sound different depending on the context you imagine, or about the same? Let's try it again...
Oh here come the Christians
This time, let me ask the pointed question: in the context you imagine, is this statement good news? And hearing this statement, would you expect the words and actions of those Christians to be good news? Would you expect the environment to become more peaceful? More loving? Would you expect those held captive to experience freedom? Would you expect those who are sick in some way to experience healing? Would you expect whatever is said or done at that point to be good news to the poor?
Yes? Terrific, I would love to meet your friends.
No? Then I think we've got a problem.
And it's not a skin-deep PR type problem. I think it's a discipleship problem. Because Christians are good news people, and we follow a Lord who announced everything I just wrote to be fulfilled in his presence. As I read in Nahum about "the one who brings good tidings, who proclaims peace," I think, "that should be us, because of who we follow." And if not, that's not a Jesus problem. And it's not a "those Christians over there who we disagree with" problem. It's an us problem.
Prayer: Change my heart, oh God. Help me tp turn to you in faith, and let your good news soak into my life, my heart, my behavior, my words, so that my arrival actually is good news for the world. Amen.
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