Potemkin Village

Luke 6:49

But anyone who hears and doesn’t obey is like a person who builds a house right on the ground, without a foundation. When the floods sweep down against that house, it will collapse into a heap of ruins.”

The original term "Potemkin Village" derives from a story dating back to 18th-century Russia. In 1787 in Czarist Russia, Prince Grigori Potemkin organized a lavish trip down the Dneiper (Neeper) River for Catherine the Great to show off the results of his much-heralded building projects. As they floated by, Potemkin pointed out village after village which he had built. All looked prosperous and were thronged with happy, well-dressed peasants.

But the entire scene was a hoax. The "villages" consisted only of painted facades erected by Potemkin for the occasion. The peasants had been dressed up and transported from miles away to give the appearance of real towns. Behind the facade of prosperity, the peasants continued to live their lives in poverty and misery.

How many times have we lived in a spiritual “Potemkin Village?” We look holy and devout on the outside, but inside, where it really counts, our hearts are far from God because we don’t obey him.

There is so much more to the Christian life than just looking the part. The Christian life is one of action: we obey, we learn, we live for him. A good stiff wind or a hard rain would have destroyed Potemkin’s charade of a town.

The houses that survive are lives built on following Christ and doing what he asks. How real is your faith?

Today’s Readings: Genesis 15-17; Luke 6

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