Something has been bothering me lately. The more I read in the Bible, and the more that I read about amazing revolutions of God where countries were turned around, the more the theme of persecution appears on a recurring basis. This has prompted me to ask the question: Why are we not being persecuted? The Bible says quite clearly that if we follow Jesus then we should expect to be persecuted like He was. It seems that only those people that become "radical" experience this. People that break with the traditions and go out and start telling people about Christ and God and who do not pull any punches are also experiencing a lot of resistance. So where does that leave the rest of us? If I am not being persecuted, then there has to be something wrong with my faith - or how I act it out. This is what the Bible declares Jesus as saying. Now I don't mean that I should go out there and start to rub people up the wrong way or anything like that, but obviously there is something out of place. If not, then why would I not experience the things that Jesus clearly stated that all Christians would experience. This does not only include persecution, but also the blind seeing, the lame walking, and many signs and wonders. Some may consider that perhaps I am a masochist who wants this to come my way but on the contrary I am very happy to not have persecution in my life. But if Jesus says that I should expect it and it is not there then this is an indication that something is not right. It is the same as a car. If the temperature dial is supposed to increase after you start it and yet it does not move, there must be something wrong. It could be the guage, or the engine, but there is something wrong. It is the same in this case. I am not looking for persecution but rather see it as a signal to indicate how things are going. It is a by-product of following Jesus as I should. So therefore I return to my question of why is there no persecution? The sad part is that there is no persecution in the church in general either. I am unfortunately not alone in all of this, as it seems there are few cases of persecution in the western world. "Ah," I hear you say, "but there is persecution in the third worlds and Asia and other places like that." True, but those places are hard places in the first place. You could not simply call yourself a Christian and wander around telling people, as you would be jailed or killed quickly. Anyone like that would probably renounce their "religion" just as quickly so as to save their skin. No, to be a Christian in those places requires a true and genuine commitment in the first place. You have to truly know and believe in what you are about to commit to because it will be likely that you will die for your belief. So I guess that means that in the western world there are many occasional Christians, and people that are in it for the social status, or club level church type goers. This is really sad. It would explain some of the reasons for why there is no persecution. If there is nobody that really believes what they say they believe then they are unlikely to tell others about it, and unlikely to upset people with their "beliefs." But what about the other people... those that do truly believe and act upon their beliefs? To be honest, I really don't know. Perhaps their actions are not enough. Perhaps when compared to the rest of those doing nothing it appears that they are doing something but really are not. In any case we all need to get serious even to the point of becoming radical. Where it will lead I don't know, but I do know that right now we are not there. Persecution is not a goal, but a signal. Right now it is signalling that something is amiss.