It’s been almost almost 9 months since I was fired by my previous employer.  There.  I said it.  FIRED.  Yep, cute, lovable, hardworking me – FIRED.

So, what’s the big deal about that word?  Here it is.  When I was looking for new employment with the Dept of Labor, they stated in their job seeking guidelines that the worst thing you could EVER put on a resume/job application was “fired”.  You were to use the term “let go”, or “laid off”, or my personal favorite, “released”.  I am absolutely serious.  Therefore when I came to that infamous box “reason for leaving employer” I tried all of the above, with mixed results.  I completely realized how stupid that was when I was in a face to face interview, that was going really well, when she looked at me and said, “WHAT does “released” mean??”  I broke out laughing and told her honestly that was what the Dept of Labor told me to use, and it meant, in a word, fired!  She cracked up too, and the rest of the interview went great, although I turned down her job offer because of travel distance and starting pay.

My point is this – no one wants to admit the hard truth anymore….and they certainly don’t want you to!  Which is one of the major stumbling blocks in evangelism today.  People no longer want to hear that they are sinners in need of a Savior – because that would mean admitting something bad – i.e. the truth – and that’s not acceptable. Most want to hear it all whitewashed, that everyone is going to heaven unless they REALLY mess up – murder, child molestation, drug sellers to children – and only about 5% of the population could possibly be guilty of that.  Therefore no one needs to worry, and evangelistic Christians are just ignorant of all the facts.

Truth is also a stumbling block to born again believers today.  We’d like to think that we are always doing great with the Lord, that we are on the right path, and that we do not need to worry about ourselves because obviously we are growing and maturing and couldn’t possibly be in need of repentance and/or revival.  That’s a harsh way of putting it, but the evidence is born out by the fact that so many of our lives today do everything BUT proclaim the Lord and His ability to keep us free from sin and free to glorify Him with our lives. And so we live in a form of denial and are not living the lives we could be in rich fulfillment of our calling by Jesus into sharing His Gospel and changing our world.

So, what to do?  Call it what it is!  State on that application that you got fired – or that you were in prison – or that you declared bankruptcy.  Start letting the world know the truth -one courageous step at a time, and then move on to boldness and courage as you let those unsaved friends, family, and acquaintances know that there IS Truth, and that they are missing out on it!  To God be the glory!