I was country when country wasn't cool

I grew up in the South, in the country, on a farm, which explains a lot of who I am. I am proud of this fact, and I treasure the values, tradition, and morals I learned from growing up in the South. One of my memories of growing up southern was trend of the Urban Cowboy. Basically, we thought of these people as wanna bees, and thought that it was silly to wear a cowboy hat and plaid shirt to look like a cowboy and certainly country.

During this trend the "real south" clung to it's roots, and a song was written about this new found cool trend of being country. The song was by Barbra Mandrel and George Jones it was called "I Was Country When Country Wasn't Cool" It spoke of things country like putting peanuts in your coke when no one was looking, and wearing straight leg Levis. Basically it was a rebuttal to all of these people trying to be cool by being something they were not. It's real message was that what you wear doesn't make you country, but how you act makes you country.

Well as I grow older I see another trend happening, it is becoming uncool to be a Christian. I think this is for many reasons, but first and foremost it is because Christians have lost sight of what it means to be in Christ's likeness. I truly believe in my lifetime there will come a day, when calling oneself a Christian will have a negative connotation. For many people this is a sad day, but to me I look forward to it. Call me crazy but...

I have always championed the underdog, give me an impossible challenge and I rise to the competition. Say it can't be done, and I will break ever bone in my body trying it. So as it becomes more and more uncool to be a Christian, I am ready. I want to have to defend what I believe, I want to be the Christian that stands tall in adversity, and I want to be the one that shows an unbelieving world how big God really is.

I am not saying I want Christianity to struggle, or for Christians to be persecuted, but I also am tired of going through the motions and not living what I believe. There is a song by Matthew West that really describes where I am in my Faith walk. For me it is time to be real, my faith is not part of me, and

I don't wanna go through the motions
I don't wanna go one more day
without Your all consuming passion inside of me
I don't wanna spend my whole life asking,
"What if I had given everything,
instead of going through the motions?"

that is where I am but not where I am staying. JN 10:10