Thoughtful Thursday: Fake it 'til you Make it.

I’ve heard this phrase used in quite a few situations.  The gist of it is: even if you aren’t good at something, just act as if you are and then eventually you’ll get there.  Sounds harmless, right?  I suppose in certain situations it would be okay.  For a child who wants to play a sport for fun, they could just jump in head first and learn as they go, rather than letting their inexperience hold them back.  However, in other situations, it would be detrimental.  Would you like your doctor to “fake it ‘til he makes it” when diagnosing or operating on you?  Absolutely not! 

I think that for a Christian, this “fake it ‘til you make it” attitude is so terribly dangerous.  When a person accepts Christ as their Savior, there is so much that they don’t yet know, that will help guide them through the Christian life.  They need to slowly learn by reading their Bible, listening to teaching and preaching in a good Bible-believing church, and most importantly, following the leading of the Holy Spirit who now lives inside of them.   

We would never encourage giving a newborn a steak and letting them “gum” it until they grow teeth and can actually chew it.  Why then would you as a “newborn” Christian, or a person who is a discipler of “newborn” Christians do the same thing?  The beautiful thing about a baby is that it is expected to be a baby.  We know that if given the proper type and amount of nutrition, they will grow and flourish.  But this is always done over time and not all at once.

The Bible says in I Samuel 16:7 “for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the LORD looketh on the heart.”

I would encourage anyone who is a young Christian, to make sure that they allow God to slowly change them on the inside in His time, rather then quickly changing the outside without truly knowing why and for whom they are doing it.