You know what’s annoying? When you’re having a conversation with someone, usually a fellow believer, and you find yourself in the awkward position of either telling a story or answering a question—and you feel the need to “disclaim” that God is first in your life.
For example, on About Me surveys that surface every so often on Facebook, the question is: “What is your favorite book?”
My favorite book is Pride and Prejudice, but part of me hesitates. Do I put the Bible in parentheses so anyone reading knows I’m a Christian? Am I less of a devout believer because I don’t want to put the Bible down as my favorite book, since the spirit of the question is about genre?
Or when you’re sharing an experience or a success you have and you find yourself saying, “Well, of course it was God who gave me the strength … the words … the ability,” because we are afraid by not saying it, we somehow cheapen the moment or aren’t being as holy or grateful as we should be?
I find that oftentimes I expect the other person to know that God is my given. Very much like “you” is understood in the sentence “Comment on my blog,” it is understood that God is my number one. My source of strength.
And I find it annoying when I get this overwhelming case of blabbermouth because I feel the need to explain that I know God works through me. Instead of feeling like I am giving Him glory, I feel like I’m doing it to appease the other person’s ideas of what I should be saying.
So it feels disingenuine.
Even though God is my given, in every situation and aspect of my life, I need to work on being able to give Him the credit and glory for all things without feeling like I have to. Not because I feel like I’ll be judged, but because I want to.
And I need to give myself a break from this self-imposed pressure to answer survey questions with the churchy answer.
Have you ever felt the need to overexplain or make sure people know you love God because of some outward pressure?
Five months after winning the Florida Christian Writers Conference 2012 Writer of the Year award, Bethany Jett signed contracts with the MacGregor Literary Agency and Regal Publishing. Her debut book, The Cinderella Rule, hit bookstores in April 2013.
