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Editorials<br />
Wilona<br />
Karimabadi<br />
A Faith of Don’ts?<br />
“So where do your children go to school?” a classmate in<br />
grad school asks.<br />
“A private school—Seventh-day <strong>Adventist</strong>, actually. I’m Seventh-day <strong>Adventist</strong>,” I reply.<br />
“Oh, yes, I had a friend back in the day who was <strong>Adventist</strong>.” I cringe, knowing what would come<br />
next. “Yeah, we hiked together through Yosemite one summer. She wasn’t allowed to use a blowdryer<br />
on Saturday,” she says. And there it was.<br />
“Oh, you’re Seventh-day <strong>Adventist</strong>,” my new Jewish friend says. “I dated an SDA guy. It made it<br />
pretty easy on Sabbath.” Well, that was slightly better. Sort of.<br />
Over my life there have been many similar conversations with new friends who find out which<br />
church I belong to and ask the questions I dread hearing. “So you’re <strong>Adventist</strong>, right? You guys<br />
don’t _________, and you don’t _________, and you don’t eat __________, and you don’t<br />
__________, and you don’t drink _________, right?” Feel free to fill in the blanks.<br />
And even in our own circles, there have been too many unhelpful statements that include the<br />
word “don’t”: “Don’t wear lipstick. You won’t go to heaven if you wear lipstick.” I heard that one<br />
from a friend who was told this at boarding academy. And in a beginners Sabbath school classroom<br />
a girl (now a grown woman and mother of three) recalls being extremely distressed at<br />
hearing the following: “Don’t misbehave now, because naughty children don’t go to heaven.”<br />
Huh?<br />
Is this what we are really all about? Of course not. But how many “on the outside” know that?<br />
You’ve likely been in similar situations. You tell someone you are Seventh-day <strong>Adventist</strong>, and<br />
either they know of us and start listing the “don’ts” we may be known for, or we are confused<br />
with another faith group—also defined by the “don’ts” they are known for. And I’ll be the first to<br />
fess up that in my younger days if someone at the neighborhood playground asked why I was<br />
unavailable on Saturday, my answer never explained things in a positive light. “Well, I won’t be<br />
here because we ‘don’t’ come here on Saturday. I can’t watch that cartoon with you because we<br />
‘don’t’ watch cartoons on Saturday.” Forgive the childish answers, but how adept were any of us<br />
5-year-olds at explaining adherence to the fourth commandment and knowing what the word<br />
“Advent” meant? Perhaps we’ve all been guilty of perpetuating the notion that our belief system<br />
is best defined by a running list of all the things we “don’t” do.<br />
Aren’t you tired of that?<br />
It’s time to flip the switch on being defined by all the things we don’t do, because you and I<br />
know that’s not who we really are. Do others know that?<br />
I realize there are those among us who may find it enhances their spiritual walk to adhere to a<br />
clearly articulated list of behaviors and activities they choose to refrain from. But we need to<br />
remember that if our job is to impact people for Christ—to show them who He really is through<br />
the difference He makes in our lives—practicing a faith of “don’ts” says nothing.<br />
Serve, listen to, understand, educate, and immerse yourself in people who need you—people<br />
who happily live well outside your comfort zone. Build up a broken person through the outpouring<br />
of Someone who lives within you. Put aside the lists and parameters that serve as a primary<br />
source of how you operate in this world, and let Jesus do the talking in any way He sees fit.<br />
Don’t you want someone to say (and if they already have, I’m thrilled): “Oh, you’re a Seventhday<br />
<strong>Adventist</strong>? You folks are the ones that do___________, and do__________, and you do live<br />
____________, and you really helped ____________, and that made our lives better”?<br />
Feel free to fill in those blanks here and in your daily lives with more Jesus and less “don’t.” n<br />
6 (230) | www.<strong>Adventist</strong><strong>Review</strong>.org | March 21, 2013