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Sunday Musings 001: Screw Tact: Tell Don't *JUST* Show

There is a saying in writing and screenwriting that goes something along the lines of "show don't tell."  If you hold true to this proverb, then your writing treats the reader or audience as intelligent beings that can piece two-and-two together.  You rely on their cognitive abilities to figure out details that once told, the story becomes primitive.  (I confess that I do this too much with my creative fiction writing.)  But I want to push against this proverb briefly.

A lot of Christians today, the reformed world included, rely on their actions to speak for themselves.  Which I hold and adhere to.  Actually, the community I live in now is the strongest I have seen.  And the college I attend challenges me to live out what I preach.  It is very challenging, yet you can see the fruit of it everywhere in the community and around the world.  But there is a ditch to this road.  And we often steer ourselves into it.  It is a quiet ditch, the allows our actions to speak for themselves, while at the same time remaining a little too quiet about why we live the way we live.  This is wrong.  Our culture is so calloused, that we need to be outright and vocal about the fact that we are Christians.

I obviously say this with tongue in cheek, for there is room for tact and "the right moment", but we cannot let that be an excuse.  This is where we could steal a page from the playbook of the Mormons and Jehovah's Witnesses.  They may be obnoxious in the way they do it, but they have the attitude that we as Christians should adopt.  Keep living your faith out, but also be obnoxiously clear that you are Christians.

"...but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect..." - 1 Peter 3:15, ESV

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