The Everyday Club

4/6/12    Steven,    about 25
Happy Easter! I can think of no better way to celebrate Jesus' resurrection than to tell others about Him so I went out to do so. I met Steven, who was out jogging, and he was very open to a random conversation with a stranger about his beliefs, which we both laughed about. Steve is a bass player in a jazz band, a college graduate, grew up Catholic, and claims to believe the world will end this year as predicted by the Mayan calender. He also claimed to believe he will go to hell because of his sins, so I asked what makes him believe he would deserve hell. "My tattoo" he said as he showed me a large tattoo on his forearm with a variety of symbols representing what he finds important - drugs, music, and devotion to Santa Muerte, a Mexican saint that is said to provide protection from injury or death. In my experience, no one can live long with the genuine belief they will spend eternity in hell without doing something about it, whether they begin to deny God's existence, trivialize their own sin and guilt, escape to drugs or a works-based religion - or find forgiveness in a relationship with Jesus. The way Steven so nonchalantly said he would go to hell told me he probably does one or more of these, so I asked him if I could give him a "good person test" - questions based on the Ten Commandments. As it turns out, Steven thinks he is bad in the eyes of church people and according to church rules, but according to biblical standards such as the Ten Commandments, he really believes he is exceptionally good. Though he admitted to breaking some commandments, he trivializes them to the point that he didn't think God would say he is guilty of breaking any. "I'll take my chances on Judgement Day" he confidently said. I wanted so badly to tell him about Jesus - especially on this Easter Sunday, but why would Steven see his need for the Savior when he doesn't believe he has anything to be saved from? Please pray for the gift of conviction as he reads the info I left him and that maybe he will call and give me a chance to tell the rest of our Easter story.