"There's something different about your brothers."
I look at my friend who was a few years younger than my teen brothers and laughed. "What do you mean?"
"I don't know...there's just something different about them...maybe they need to go to school."
I really laughed now. "Why, so they can be more 'normal'?
"No..." I could see my friend backtracking now. "I don't want them to get into drugs and sex like everyone else...they just seem different...I don't understand."

My favorite thing for people to say to me, is to tell me that I'm different than everyone else. It doesn't happen much, but it's the highest compliment you can pay me. "You're different. I can't explain it, but you are."

I don't go around and tell people I'm a Christian. I don't think I've mentioned it once at work. I don't hide it, I never would. I'm honest about my song choices, that my dad's a pastor, that I feed the homeless once a week on Tuesdays and "hey, you can come too if you like?"
I love my Jesus...more than words could ever say.
But God hasn't given me the gift of evangelism like He has my dad and many other. I can't always bring God easily into a conversation, I can't ask people where they go to church without sounding judgmental (my dad aces this question and people still love him). I don't like praying in public...that alone is extremely difficult for me.

Yet I am a Christian through and through.

I am a Christian because of Who I follow, of how I live my life -- not what I say.

I've learned that words can be meaningless pieces of junk. They can mean nothing. I've learned that people can say they love you and leave you in an instant. I've learned that people can say one thing and mean another. I've learned that people lie and cheat and say things just to look good.
Words mean nothing without actions. You can call yourself a Christian and be further from God than the people who say they aren't.
Christians can be the biggest hypocrites. They say a lot but end up doing a lot less.

How do people see that different aspect in our lives? How do they sense Jesus in us? The Bible says that we are reflections of God.
I think that's true.
When we allow it.

People are watching us, waiting to see what we will do. People can't see something that is not there. People say that you are what you listen to...
I say you are what you do.
I can't tell you how to live you life. I can barely keep my life together. But unless we take the time to live like Christ...unless we truly take the time to see what Jesus wants and not what we want...unless we really do take the time to act, than you can never truly mirror Christ.
I think the highest privilege in the world, is people being able to see the Creator in me and in those I love. For them to sense that...despite my darkness, despite my sin, despite my fallings...that is both incredible and a boost to my day.
Your actions matter.
Words do too...but actions even more.

Because we are walking mirrors...

God has given the choice of who we can reflect.
The world is watching and it's up to us who we will show them.