Several weeks ago, I read the book "Leadership and Self Deception." I have mentioned it a time or two previously in my blog.

It has really caused me to think a lot about how our attitudes toward others can build walls around ourselves. Walls which cause others to also put up walls. Walls which keep us from ever seeing each other as we really are, instead cloaking us in how we think we are and how we think they are. Walls which keep us from reaching each other for anything good.

Last night I got a difference perspective on that ... the same story but from a different angle.

At our church, we had a simulcast of author Donald Miller speaking last night. We were able to wrap up a meeting I was in at church fairly early so that I was able to catch most of the simulcast. I really enjoy Miller's books but this was the first time I'd ever seen him speak.

One of the most amazing things was that he spoke about Matthew 6. Exactly the same passage that my friend Phil had used in his devotion for the meeting we were in together prior to the simulcast. Phil was watching the simulcast, too. Afterward, I asked him if he was channeling Donald Miller or something last night. Phil was actually the person who had first told me about Miller a couple of years ago.

Anyway, one of the things Miller spoke about was how, as Christians, we can fall into the trap of trying to put forth a Christian persona which really is nothing more than an attempt to gain "social points" (he called them something like that) with other Christians. We do this with how we behave, the things we say, the places we go, and even the way we dress. As we do this, we separate ourselves more and more from non-Christians and eventually they even start to stare at us like we're from outer space. Feeling like they can no longer relate to us, non-Christians start to avoid us (or we avoid them) and eventually we end up with only Christian friends. How wrong is that!?! What we have inadvertantly done is build walls around ourselves which, like in Leadership and Self Deception, prevent us from meeting, relating to, and reaching others.

Miller made a great point for self-reflection. I have thought about it a lot since then and I guess that I am not sure exactly where I stand in terms of using my Christianity to inadvertantly build walls around myself. I pray that I am not doing that now, nor that I will do that in the future. Something to keep in check though, that is for sure.