Are you a Christian?

I was sitting in class tonight at Lindenwood and I heard a sound out in the hallway. My mind immediately jumped to panic mode and I began to think about what would happen if a gunman came into our building or our room. Would I duck? Would I run to the corner? Lock the door?

There was a day that I never had to think about these things. I never once questioned whether I would be safe in school or ask myself what I would do if a gunman came into my classroom. Columbine happened when I was 8 years old, so I remember hearing about it but not really letting it sink in.

The years following Columbine, I felt like I started hearing more and more about school shootings. The first school shooting that I really understood what was going on was when I was 15...Virginia Tech. After that we had Sandy Hook, Arapahoe, Umpqua Community College. I'm sure that I've missed more than a couple.

This isn't a post about guns or no guns.
This is a post about me, a student, who has to think about "what would I do if a gunman entered my classroom?" when I'm in the middle of class.

Going one step further, in the recent Umpqua shooting, there have been some accounts of people saying that the gunman asked his victims, "Are you a Christian?" If they said yes, he shot them.

Chills.

If you are a Christian, would you admit it in that moment?

Maybe that's a question that we, as Christians, should ponder.
We are so 'safe' in the United States. Free to practice Christianity while our brothers and sisters in other parts of the world are persecuted for their faith in Christ. They must choose each day whom they will serve.

But we don't think about what following Christ may look like in a life or death situation because we haven't had to face it in our country.

Well, I thought about all of this tonight in class.
I was just...
Minding my own business.
Drinking my Mountain Dew.
Learning from my classmates.
Texting while the teacher wasn't looking.
Probably like a lot of the students were doing, just moments before the shooting on October 1.

And in a blink of an eye, their lives were changed and they were forced to make a decision.
Are you a Christian? Yes or No.

What would I have said?
What would you have said?

"Therefore everyone who confesses Me before men, I will also confess him before My Father who is in Heaven. But whoever denies Me before men, I will also deny him before My Father who is in Heaven." Matthew 10:32-33 

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