When you hear “Go and preach the gospel” does it fill you with dread or make you feel excited? If the idea of talking to strangers about Jesus gets you pumped up, you probably have a more outgoing personality that views the opportunity as an exciting adventure. If discussing something as personal as your faith with a stranger (or talking about anything with a stranger) immediately makes your heart pump harder just thinking about it, then you’re likely a quiet introvert.
When we measure our faith based on how likely we are to talk to our waitress about Jesus, us introverts will fall short and feel inferior every time. But there’s more than one way to “go and teach” and it doesn’t look the same for everyone.
Our faith should be bold, but we tend to interpret bold as loud or in your face. I thought bold faith meant knocking on strangers’ doors to invite them to VBS or visiting someone you don’t know in the hospital. I thought bold faith meant telling every person you meet about Jesus even if it makes you BOTH uncomfortable.
I have not done any of the things above, and that has made me feel like I wasn’t a good enough Christian. But I’ve learned (and still learning) that there are many practices of faith that are not loud.
FAITH INSIDE
Faith starts with your relationship with God. It is believing that God loves you, guides you, and desires what is best for you. Faith is trusting in something bigger than yourself, not leaning on your own understanding. Trusting, hoping, believing—these are all action verbs that you cannot see. Other internal methods of practicing faith are prayer, meditation, and Bible reading, which lead to transformation of the mind, heart, and soul. Transformation is what every Christian desires, but it is not something visible to those around you.
“…Humans do not see what the Lord sees, for humans see what is visible, but the Lord sees the heart.”
I Samuel 16:7
So much of what we are taught is about our outward actions. Are we giving, serving, helping, teaching, doing enough? Are we volunteering for the right ministries, attending worship services, taking meals to sick families? All of these are important and necessary things that need to be done, but not just because we see others doing them and feel like we should too.
How many of us are skipping over the relationship part of faith and going right to the actions? Maybe we want others to see us doing our good works, or maybe we think all “good Christians” do those things. Our faith in God moves us to action, but let’s not put our faith in our works.
FAITH OUTSIDE
“Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and don’t do the things I say? I will show you what someone is like who comes to me, hears my words, and acts on them: He is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid the foundation on the rock. When the flood came, the river crashed against that house and couldn’t shake it, because it was well built. But the one who hears and does not act is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation. The river crashed against it, and immediately it collapsed. And the destruction of that house was great.”
Luke 6:46-49
I hope no one thinks I’m saying faith doesn’t require action, because clearly the wise person obediently follows the words of Christ, and does them. However, there are external expressions of faith that are not big and loud. For example, teaching your children, taking an anonymous gift to a friend or neighbor, writing a note to someone, helping in the kitchen at church (away from all the small talk). Knowing your personality, your temperament, your strengths and weaknesses helps you to decide what works of service you would enjoy doing. That doesn’t mean you won’t be asked to do something outside of your comfort zone, but you don’t want to spend all your time there. Learning what you are good at doing and what brings you joy allows you to spend more time in your sweet spot and less time worrying about what others think of what you are doing. There is quiet confidence found in being who God created you to be.
“When we have spiritual truth but don’t understand who God made us, we do what others tell us we should do rather than discover his best for us. Or we place expectations on those around us based on our opinions and preferences. Both lead to misery—and sometimes religious meanness. Self-awareness helps us give and receive grace. It’s part of growing into all we’re created to be and helping others do the same. Self-awareness doesn’t change spiritual truth, it supports it by helping us know how to live it out in specific, personal ways each day.”
-Holley Gerth, The Powerful Purpose of Introverts, Why the World Needs You to be You
Faith is showing up even when there will be no applause or praise from others, knowing that even in the small moments, the light of Christ still shines.
YOU ARE GOD’S WORKMANSHIP
For you are saved by grace through faith, and this is not from yourselves; it is God’s gift—not from works, so that no one can boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared ahead of time for us to do.
Ephesians 2:8-10
You do good works, but not to be saved by them. The work you do is an overflow of the love, gratitude, and faith that is in your heart. You are already good because God made you good. You make the works good, not the other way around—the works do not make you good. You were created through Christ to look like Christ; you were created in love to go and be love.
All our works will not look the same, because what God created for you may not be what God created for me. And this is so that no one can boast; no one’s works are greater than the others. The loud is not greater than the quiet. The strong is not greater than the weak. The joyful, exuberant ones are not greater than the quiet, reflective ones. God made you to be you, and what that looks like is between you and God.
“There isn’t only one right way to do the job of glorifying God. There are many ways, a million little ways, that Christ is formed in us and spills out of us into the world.”
-Emily P. Freeman, A Million Little Ways, Uncover the Art You were Made to Live, p.29
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