The Everyday Club

4/18/10 Conner, 20
After our church softball practice today I took my son Sammy, 16, for a walk around the park, and we prayed that we could have a Gospel conversation with someone. A stocky young man (Conner) came down the sidewalk, in his own world with his earbuds on but I smiled and made eye contact, asking if he had a minute to answer a few questions. He stopped and took off his earbuds. "I've been asking random people about their spiritual beliefs, so would you say you're a spiritual person? Do you believe in a higher power?" Conner told us he grew up Catholic but hasn't been attending church since he went off to college. "I just got too busy with my studies and everything" was his excuse. He is an engineering student at IIT. Though he understands he has sinned, he believes he will go to heaven because his good outweighs his bad. I asked what good things he has done. He looked thoughtful and said, "You know, I've done a lot of good things but I was raised to believe that it's just what you do. I just do good because its the right thing to do." I said "You're exactly right. When we do good things it's only what God expects us to do in the first place, so our good can't outweigh our sins." I went on to talk of the punishment we deserve according to God's justice, and the good news that Jesus is, challenging Conner to put his faith in Jesus for salvation. We talked for about 20 minutes. Here are Sammy's comments about our conversation: "I thought that it was a very uplifting conversation. I was happy to be a part of it."