Lifting the veil

The bible talks about how before becoming a Christian, we all have a veil that prevents us from seeing God's truth. I get that concept well enough, but when I come face to face with non-Christians I love and care for, it's so apparent what the bible is talking about. Recently I had the special blessing of spending time with relatives I haven't seen in years. We had lots of fun together, laughed for hours, enjoyed each others' company, and talked about so much. It became so clear to me how blinded the world makes people nowadays. When I was growing up, there were many households that didn't attend church. After all, my friends' parents (and mine) were from the 60's teenage generation. Question everything - do what feels right to you - oppose your parents' values, and all that. But even so, the kids I grew up with still had a sense of there being a God out there somewhere. They still respected the difference between right and wrong. They still followed the basics of what the bible teaches. So how, in such a short amount of time, did we get to where we are today? The relatives I spent time with don't go to church, and that's okay, it's their choice. They also have absolutely zero interest in what is truly right and wrong, everything is subject to feelings, or "situational ethics". The right thing to do is what they feel like doing at the time. Also, I noticed, that unlike within my faith, there's very selfish undertones. I don't mean this in a derogatory way, I'm not saying they're selfish, really. It's just that in my church, for example, when one of us hurts, our brothers and sisters in Christ hurt with us and want to pray and help us. If one of us is rejoicing, we all rejoice together. If one of us has an experience where we see God at work, we share that, and learn more about Him together. There's none of that in this world. Not to the same deep, inner degree, anyway. Everything seems to be about self: what I want, how I feel, what I want to happen, I want to go first, they aren't my problem, etc. There's so little regard for anyone beyond the niceties and politically correctness of those around you. During our conversations, I noticed such a lack of comprehension about trying to live God's way. Comments were made about how you can't live without bad stuff, bad language, and fallen people (my term, not theirs) all around. I believe that's true, you can't live in this world without encountering it all. It's not going away til the end of time. You can't escape it without living in a bubble, and that's pretty self-serving to do that. What the veil keeps others from seeing is that you CAN live among the world but not become part of the problem. You can be the example of living a life of joy, selflessness, sacrifice, freedom, etc. You don't have to use the same bad language as those around you. You can choose what movie and tv shows you put in your head. You can choose who you surround yourself with for friends and support, you can choose to be honest, even when no one's looking, and you can choose to love people. They really didn't even see that as an option. The general opinion was that since everyone around you is doing all this bad stuff, you might as well jump in and do it to. Fitting in is more important than standing out and standing for something that's not easy. How I wish I could lift veil and they could see the joy, hope, direction, peace, and love that could be theirs. It's not my place to force it down anyone's throat. It's just that, because of my love for them, I want them to find the wonderful things they're missing. I want them to experience all the GOOD that they could have. I want the best for them. I know there's false beliefs out there about Christianity that turns people off, and some unfortunate truths and statistics too. I hope I was successful in our short talk on the subject in conveying some truth. We don't follow a book of strict rules. We aren't perfect. We should not be judging others, that's not our place. It's not about having to "do" or "be", but it's about a free gift of salvation through Jesus that gives us everlasting life. I tried to explain that our home church has a motto, "No perfect people allowed." I know in some churches, the members are the worst at being judgmental, holier than thou, and hypocritical. I try to help people see that that isn't Christianity, that's just people, human nature, but it's still wrong - especially for those who Jesus forgave so much! I tried to explain that we don't have a long list of do's and don'ts. It's basically, love God, and love people, and accept that Jesus paid the price for you. That's it. If you love God, you'll want to please Him and do what's right. If you love others, you'll be less likely to be selfish, critical, manipulative, deceptive, etc. I don't know if it made any difference at all, but my job isn't to convert the world. It's to be like Johnny Appleseed. I plant seeds of faith, and move on. If their timing is right, and the Holy Spirit steps in, the seeds will grow. Maybe I'll never see what grew from those seeds, and maybe nothing will come from some of them, but some will grow big and strong and have deep roots. They'll produce more "seedlings" themselves, and people will be saved.