We are compelled by the love of Christ to live as he directs. We live differently because he lives.

Not all atheists reject God for the same reason. From our perspective, we might think that atheists refuse to believe in God because they find no reason for God. All things, the thinking goes, can be explained by natural forces: science over superstition. Yes, that is one of the mantras of an atheist.

Yet, a contemporary atheist Thomas Nagel said, "I want atheism to be true, . . . It isn't just that I don't believe in God, and, naturally, hope that I'm right about my belief. It's that I hope there is no God! I don't want there to be a God; I don't want the universe to be like that."

Another ethics professor, Mortimer Adler, was quietly baptized at 81. He confessed that he had rejected religion most of his life because it "would require a radical change in my way of life, a basic alteration in the direction of my day-to-day choices as well as in the ultimate objectives to be sought or hoped for. . . . The simple truth of the matter is that I did not wish to live up to being a genuinely religious man."

In another area, a commentator suggested that the reason young people abandon the church is that they do not wish to change and live up to Christianity's moral standard. When they become independent adults, some enter relationships—cohabitation without marriage—that they know are wrong. Instead of altering their behavior, they opt out of going to church. It seems that going to church produces either too much guilt or too much hypocrisy.

These thoughts are not new. The world outside of the Christian faith likes to characterize Christians as narrow, boring, and dull. By the standards of these people, life is about the freedom to engage in any activity, think any thought, drink as much as you can, party as often as you want, and sleep off every hangover so you can repeat the cycle.

That doesn't mean everyone outside Christianity is a prodigal son or daughter. Highly competent, skilled, and capable people fill our world. They are not all Christian. Yet generally they do not adhere to Christian standards of morality. Many take the position of Thomas Nagel and Mortimer Adler before his conversion, refusing to allow Christian faith to influence their lives.

So what is so different about our lives as Christians? What has changed us that we desire to live such narrow, boring, and dull lives? Well, first, we wouldn't agree that our lives are narrow, boring, and dull. But aside from that, we are different. We think differently, and we act differently. Why?