The Everyday Club

5/31/2011        Steve, Brian, and friend       all early 20's
On a Memorial Day road trip we stopped at a Wisconsin rest area where I found three "roadies" - a sound production crew for concerts - hanging out at a picnic table during a break in their travels. I gave them all MDB's to start a conversation, asking if they believe they'll go to heaven. "No way!" one exclaimed, saying he didn't believe in God or heaven. He turned out to be quite an atheist, mocking God and anyone who would believe in Him. While driving, I had been thinking about the general lack of conviction of sin and fear of God I've seen in people over the past several weeks, and was concluding that in the hard-to-find balance between law and grace I have been erring far too much on the side of grace, and had resolved to emphasize the law of God more, so here was my chance. The kinds of things this guy asked me were "So do you believe your God will send us all to hell? Is He on some kind of ego trip or something? Who does He f____in'' think He is?" I told him "You know right from wrong but are living in rebellion against God and will be held accountable for your actions whether you believe in Him or not" He (he refused to tell me his name) had obviously thought a lot about this because he asked me a lot of questions - the kind people rely on to try to dismiss God. His friends, Brian and Steve, had some good questions of their own, but more of the kind of questions where they truly wanted to understand Christianity. Their friend dominated the conversation, but on my way back to the car Steve stopped me, saying "I don't believe in God like you, but thanks for what you are trying to do."