What Do Our Lives Say About How Important Jesus Is?

Someone can tell almost everything about you by the choices you make. Where do you spend your money? How do you spend your time? What books are on your bookshelf? What movies do you watch? How do you start your day? How do you end it? People are always watching you. Trying to determine who you really are as a person. In a society as superficial as ours, the people we build relationships with are particularly wary. We know how easy it is for people to be fake (because we often are ourselves) so we naturally grow suspicious of people's true intentions. Everything get's analyzed, collated, and put in a brain file that says who we think you truly are.

This being the case, what do people's mental files say about you? Where do they find Jesus in the midst of your decisions? You can talk about Jesus all you want. They've heard it all. But when they see your bookshelves, see the dust covered Bible, and are at your house for the game during church time on Sunday; what are you really communicating? How important does Jesus seem in your life then? Most people don't avoid church because of the Bible. You have to read the Bible to be offended by it and most people don't. Most people don't avoid church because of music, preaching, or anything else. Most people avoid church and church people because of the lack of importance that Jesus holds in our lives. We talk non stop about how amazing and good Jesus is, but our lives tell a different story: that good as He is, you can live without Him. That amazing as He is and what He has done for us, our lives are not noticeably different from those around us. We are not hypocrites because of our mess ups (we vigorously maintain that we're just "sinners saved by grace"), we're hypocrites because our words and our actions tell different tales about how important Jesus really is.

So how important is Jesus really? Is He just something we talk about and turn to in times of need or seasonal appropriateness (Christmas and Easter)? Or is He something more? What does your life say about how important Jesus is? Do others see that Jesus is central to everything? Or that you can do alright without him?