What if I damage my witness?

God calls us to be faithful to His Word, not to the whims of the world.

"What if I damage my witness?"

I hear this question often. It is the automatic response of many Christians when they are confronted with controversial or difficult subject. In fact, many pastors and believers avoid hard topics for this very reason.

But that is not the question you should be asking. Here is why.

I went to see a movie the other day. It was “A Man Called Otto,” a story about an old, cynical man who tries to kill himself but learns to live again through the love of a friendly family who moves in next door. A harmless story, one would think. Perhaps heart-warming.

But I came away grieved. My heart is burdened for our nation, particularly for the young people. The movie I saw blatantly relied heavily on the current culture’s social credit system of Critical Race Theory (which you can read more about here), and literally every box was checked (race, gender, disability, age, you name it). We are at the point where there is no need to be covert in the messaging, because all of this generation simply takes for granted the premise that the more apparently oppressed you are, the more favors and credit you ought to receive in society. It honestly reminds me of Maoist China or Germany under the Third Reich. When learning about those time periods, we ask ourselves, “How could a whole nation be brainwashed like that?” This is how. They have been teaching CRT (and along with it, anger, entitlement, and confusion) in the schools for long enough now that it has penetrated not only this generation’s minds, but their hearts.

More than that, it grieves me how false our stories are now (you can read more about that here). When was the last time you went to see a movie and you thought “Wow, that seems real; that might have happened in real life”? Even the cinematography is edited, and it reminds me of an Instagram filter. There is no truth in it.

So many young people in our country are lost, being fed lies from every side. Social media, movies, friends, school, all are fake, made-up versions of themselves. They must present a certain way and let no one see their heart. They sink themselves into anger, drug addiction, violence, and bodily mutilation, all for the sake of finding something real. For something that resounds in the depths of their soul. They are searching, grasping, for the answer, the truth.

Looking into the eyes of one who is hungry but has been fed poison all their lives, you have two choices. You can continue feeding them poison, reinforcing the lies they’ve been fed, or you can give them the Bread of Life, with which they will never grow hungry again.

Young people do not need more concerts, pizza parties, or shallow friendships--they can get that in the world. They need Jesus. They need truth. They need reality. They are desperate for it.

Preach Jesus--unadulterated, offensive, opinionated, compassionate, real Jesus. The one who convicted the woman in adultery and the Pharisees in the same breath, who condemned to hell those who harm innocent children, who called the religious leaders and even His closest followers children of the devil, but who laid down his life to save those same sinners.

If you do that, you will be far more attractive to a hungry generation than those who look just like the world that feeds them lies.

And if you don’t, what witness do you have?