2/21/13 Brian about 22
Where and how can an old fogey like me relate the Gospel to today's cutting-edge urban hipsters?
Well, hipsters need to eat too, and I’ve found that the grocery store is a great place to talk to them about the good news of Jesus.
An edgy-looking young man there named Brian responded to my question about his beliefs by warning me “You don’t want to talk to me man, I’m an agnostic! You can’t prove anything to me!”
Everything about his body language told me he just wanted to avoid a religious argument, so I just gently asked a few questions about his general beliefs. “So you don’t know if there is any kind of an afterlife or not. How about God, do you believe in any sort of higher power?”
He did, and I think that because I asked such a general question, rather than asking about the specific God of Christianity, he felt more open to talking. It showed I was willing to talk about any beliefs he might have.
I saw his claim to be an agnostic as an opportunity, because the same “open-mindedness’ that takes pride in questioning everything – including the possibility that God doesn’t exist – must also be open to the possibility that God does exist, and that we will be accountable to him.
No, I couldn’t “prove” anything to him, and I would be foolish to try. But just as our common need for food put us on level ground there at the grocery store, there is one thing I know beyond a doubt that God has given Brian that we also have in common. There is one thing that will provide enough proof in his own mind to know that he will be held accountable to God.
That one thing is his own conscience, his inner sense of right and wrong that is somehow separate from any excuses he might make up for going against it. Paul referred to this when he wrote in Romans 2 – “Gentiles…show that the requirements of the law are written on their hearts, their consciences also bearing witness, and their thoughts sometimes accusing them and at other times even defending them.”
Once I began to use the standard of God’s law, all criticisms about God just fell by the wayside as Brian grappled with the fact of his own guilt. The law was doing its job, showing Brian his need for Jesus.
He knew he had some thinking to do, but his initial reaction? He reached out to shake my hand and said “thanks so much for taking the time to talk to me today”
Well, hipsters need to eat too, and I’ve found that the grocery store is a great place to talk to them about the good news of Jesus.
An edgy-looking young man there named Brian responded to my question about his beliefs by warning me “You don’t want to talk to me man, I’m an agnostic! You can’t prove anything to me!”
Everything about his body language told me he just wanted to avoid a religious argument, so I just gently asked a few questions about his general beliefs. “So you don’t know if there is any kind of an afterlife or not. How about God, do you believe in any sort of higher power?”
He did, and I think that because I asked such a general question, rather than asking about the specific God of Christianity, he felt more open to talking. It showed I was willing to talk about any beliefs he might have.
I saw his claim to be an agnostic as an opportunity, because the same “open-mindedness’ that takes pride in questioning everything – including the possibility that God doesn’t exist – must also be open to the possibility that God does exist, and that we will be accountable to him.
No, I couldn’t “prove” anything to him, and I would be foolish to try. But just as our common need for food put us on level ground there at the grocery store, there is one thing I know beyond a doubt that God has given Brian that we also have in common. There is one thing that will provide enough proof in his own mind to know that he will be held accountable to God.
That one thing is his own conscience, his inner sense of right and wrong that is somehow separate from any excuses he might make up for going against it. Paul referred to this when he wrote in Romans 2 – “Gentiles…show that the requirements of the law are written on their hearts, their consciences also bearing witness, and their thoughts sometimes accusing them and at other times even defending them.”
Once I began to use the standard of God’s law, all criticisms about God just fell by the wayside as Brian grappled with the fact of his own guilt. The law was doing its job, showing Brian his need for Jesus.
He knew he had some thinking to do, but his initial reaction? He reached out to shake my hand and said “thanks so much for taking the time to talk to me today”
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