By April Terry (personal blog http://faithwarming.blogspot.com )

My husband and I needed some repairs done on our pool this week and found someone using the yellow pages.  Unfortunately, after one visit that put our pool in a worse state, we were put in a bad position because we had already paid a couple hundred bucks for something that wasn’t completed and wasn’t done right in the first place.  After several attempts to get the gentleman out to fix the problem with no response, we finally starting looking into the history of the business and found that the business license listed in his ad was a bogus number as well.  So, as a final resort, my husband left a message for him that he would be contacting the D.A. regarding the situation. 

A couple of days later, we got a series of desperate phone calls from what sounded like a very inebriated pool guy that finally culminated in our cutting off all contact with him.  However, before it got to that point, the gentleman told my husband that he wasn’t being very “Christian.”  That left me thinking about what the expectations are of Christians in these types of real world situations.  I wondered if the guy really expected that a Christian was supposed to withdraw quietly when they were being ripped off. 

When the term Christian is batted around, a lot of expectations go along with it out there in the world.  I get that we are expected to live up to another standard, but what do those outside the Christian church expect that standard to be and what do they expect a Christian to behave like?  Can we live up to those expectations?  I wonder if it is even possible and if it is, why we can’t seem to live up to it. 

I realize the pool guy wasn’t an honest and upstanding guy and his comment was intended to hurt, but it also illustrated a huge gap between Christians and others.  This breach illustrates that there are expectations about how we are supposed to respond and how we are supposed to react in each situation and in those situations we are carrying a great responsbility because we are supposed to be living in a way that makes a difference.  I feel the burden of the responsibility that we are taking on in trying to live up to those expectations at times. 

It doesn’t really matter whether or not the expectations of others are realistic or even fair.  What matters is that they exist and because they exist, we must deal with the reality as it is rather than how we want it to be.  Personally, I think it would help a lot to know what those expectations are rather than to spend my time wondering what they are.  However, it may just be possible that those outside the Christian faith don’t really spend much time thinking about what their expectations are, either. 

The only way that we can come to an understanding of one another is to enter into dialog with those who are different from us and consider that there may be both realistic and unrealistic expectations from both sides.  There may indeed be a level of “good living” that we are not living up to, but there may also be an expectation that we should live to a higher level than is realistic as well. 

We are all flawed.  We wrestle daily with our imperfect natures as we try to strike a balance between our flaws and our faithfulness.  This is what makes us inherently human.  Still, we desire to live in a way that makes others take pause and consider that we have acted in a way that is honorable and upright.  If that is our goal, we must endeavor to know what others expect and what others believe about us and we must be able to handle the answers that we get back.  All I am really advocating is for real truth and transparency.  After all, the truth has set us free.