Tracy Press

What defines the character of Christians is what they do and think when it's only them and God.

Have you ever taken the time out of your busy schedule to ask yourself the difficult question, "Who am I really? When no one else is around, when there are no witnesses to incriminate me, who am I in the dark?"

What we value most in life determines our priorities. We are what we value. We follow our notions about life and our relationships with others. Those notions, beliefs and truths about the realities of our existence govern the way we act, the way we look at ourselves, how we treat others.

We form habits over the years and tend to be predictable in similar circumstances, with one major exception. We often act differently in the company of others than we would if we were alone.

The truth of the matter is that we are never truly alone. The God of the Bible teaches that he is ever-present and all knowing. He knows when we rise up in the morning and when a sparrow dies. There is nothing that goes on in the universe that surprises him. He knows each one of us intimately and knows everything about us, past, present and future. There is no hiding from God.

We often forget that truth. Even those who have a relationship with God through his son, Jesus Christ, often live their lives as if God were not present at all. We fall into the trap of thinking, "Who will know?" And we go about our day as if God were unaware of the details of our lives.

If we are Christians, we sometimes live a double life, like the rest of the world. We act differently when we are in the presence of fellow believers than we do around others. We tell off-color jokes, see unsuitable films, use foul language, sell low-quality products and are unfaithful to our spouses. These examples of our dark side hardly scratch the surface of the "say one thing but live the other" of our lives.

If we are to be the attractive role models of our beliefs that God wants for us, we need to be ambassadors for Christ more of the time. There is a battle of the mind that rages between our ears, the natural way that pleases the Enemy versus the right way that is so pleasing to our Maker.

We will never live without making selfish mistakes. We will continue to be less-than-perfect witnesses for the good news of Christ because we are weak human beings. But we can’t use our weakness as an excuse to repeatedly bring dishonor to the Lord by behaving no differently than the rest of the world. God wants to help us in that battle. Through him, we can grow our good behavior and reduce our worldly ways. That transformation is a matter of our conscious choice to bring honor to him.

A well-known unbeliever once said of Christianity, "I love their Christ but not his followers. They are too different from their leader."

There is the story about the father who had just tucked his young son into bed with a prayer. He stopped in the hallway after closing his son’s door and prayed, "Lord, help me to be just like you, because he wants to be just like me."

Lord, help me to model you in the dark, even when there’s no one around but the two of us.

• To contact the Rev. Jim Bush, a pastor of Heartland Church, e-mail This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it . All spiritual leaders in the Tracy community are invited to write columns for Reflections on Faith.