Psalm 69:5, 6 —

O God, You know my foolishness;
And my sins are not hidden from You.
Let not those who wait for You, O Lord GOD of hosts,
        be ashamed because of me;
Let not those who seek You
        be confounded because of me, O God of Israel.

We are not perfect. Very few fallen sinners actually are. This is no surprise. I do not live the way I should and you do not live the way you should.

David’s prayer is striking because of how real it is to us in “modern” times. I try to live my life in a way that the unsaved will turn to God because of my actions, and that nothing I do will ever deter a seeker from the Truth. But I can’t say I have made it a daily prayer that I will live each day pointing to God with everything I do.

I wish it were more clear to onlookers that Christianity is not the sum of its followers. The actions of a great deal of Christians are not reflective of God and His truth. There is a lot of stuff that is wrong with the way Christianity is demonstrated by those who call themselves Christians.

When I see Southern Baptists picketing gay-pride parades with “GOD HATES FAGS” signs, and when I flip through TBN and see any number of requests for money by manipulative preachers because “God will bless you”, it makes me not even want to let anyone know I am a Christian because I don’t want to associate myself with all that stuff. I would rather that people see the way I live first so that they can develop their own opinions about me without immediately associating me with the “Christians” they see on TV.

If I do anything wrong, anything that damages the reputation of Christianity — put the blame on me. I am a sinner and I am not perfect. And if I do anything right, give glory to God, because without Him I could do nothing right. But don’t think less of Christianity because of anything that I, or any other followers of Christ, may do.