How consistently do you use everyday events to show Christ to others? Do you take the opportunities presented to you to teach?
Jesus often taught using parables, which are short analogies or extended metaphors illustrating a moral or religious lesson. Another way of putting it is parables are earthly stories with a heavenly meaning. They are easy to remember and often provide the catalyst needed to help us think in new ways. By using everyday objects to convey deeper meaning, grasping new—perhaps complex—concepts is somewhat easier.
But maybe you’d rather tell it like it is. Our society has little patience for beating around the bush, and parables can be seen as just that. But think about it this way: what do you remember better, the parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37) or a lecture you heard in high school?
A few of you non-conformists will say the lecture but I am fairly confident most people remember the Good Samaritan more than Chemistry 12. You can absolutely teach moral and religious truth straight out, but as soon as a few years pass and the context changes these teachings risk losing their relevance. A parable’s teaching endures because even though the context changes, the lesson can be transferred to any setting.
This is Mike Cumiskey’s point in From Bread to Toast, August’s LifeTrac article. He starts by writing his own modern-day parable to teach about what living out the Gospel means and to help add context to James 2:15-17.
Read Mike’s article, leave your thoughts and comments, and pass it along to your friends.
Have you ever written a modern-day parable? What did you write about? If you could use an everyday experience to teach others about God, what would you choose?
By Robyn Roste
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