“I’m not interested. Thank you!” A sweet asian lady said at the door. She wasn’t interested in my books. She didn’t want anything that had anything to do with Christianity. I guessed that she was probably a Buddist, or perhaps another eastern religion.

“Ok. That’s fine. Would you be interested in helping us with a donation to help us through school?”

“Ok. Let me see what I have.” She replied, closing the door and disappearing into the house. She returned with $10.

The wires in my head started connecting the dots. This was my first canvassing trip, yet I had just discovered a strange dicotomy. Most of the people I visited weren’t interested in buying books, and most of them simply weren’t interested in even listening to what I had to say or helping with anything. Some would help and get books, and some were really interested and wanted one or more books as soon as they saw them. But the majority of people I met just weren’t interested at all.

America is a Christian nation… At least we think of ourselves as a Christian nation. But what were Christ’s values? Jesus was generous, considerate, kind, tender hearted, loving everyone he met. The people I met at the door were so much different! Most of them wouldn’t even give me time to finish my canvass. Being a Christian means being like Christ.

If I were to say that the Buddist lady was more like Jesus than most of the Christians I met, I might take some flak from the Christian world. But isn’t it true? It is what I experienced. And it’s not just one Asian lady that I met. I met several, and the experience was nearly always the same. But this is because helping and doing good to others is part of what these Asian religions believe in. What about Christianity? Isn’t this what we believe? Is it what we do?

Will you join me in taking the name of Christian seriously? Will you join me in making it a point to be Christlike even when you don’t have time? even when you don’t feel like it? even when every part of you screams no? Will you do it not because you will earn your way to heaven, but because its what Jesus did? Will you join me?