As many of you know, Katy and I took a trip for our 5th anniversary a few weeks ago. We got to see so many cool sites across the island of Puerto Rico. One of the sites we saw was “San Juan Bautista Catedral” which translated into English means “Saint John the Baptist Cathedral.” It is the 2nd oldest cathedral in the United States.
I had no idea that “Juan Bautista” was John the Baptist until one of our tour guides told us. In fact, the capital city is even named “San Juan” after Saint John the Baptist.
I’m not sure why I thought this was so cool. There are cathedrals and cities all over the world that are named after people we read about in the Bible. But for some reason standing in the city, and in that cathedral made it that much cooler for me.
What struck me was the fact that Christianity has had an undeniable influence across the world. It’s easy to see Christianity just through an American lens. However, that view is so short sighted that it misses beauties like the influence Christianity has had in so many other places. So much so that they named their city and their church building after John the Baptist!
As we walked the that cathedral the thought kept coming back to my mind, “If Christianity has permeated the world THAT much throughout history, why can’t we make that happen again?” My point in this article is to encourage you (and me) to not give up spreading Christian influence. We are called to be the salt of the earth, and the light of the world (Matthew 5:13ff). Yet when I look around at our nation, I see the Christian influence loosing its footing. Let’s not give up fighting in this world to be the light that overcomes the darkness. Let’s not give up being the salt that permeates everything it touches. Let’s spread the Christian influence so much so that perhaps they’ll begin renaming buildings and cities after the heroes we read about in the pages of Scripture.
-Kolton Ballance