Much in Common

1/4/15            Cristo             about 30

What do we say when people tell us that all religions are basically the same?  This is what a man named Cristo at Home Depot told me when I first reached out to him, dismissing the need for any further conversation.  It wouldn’t have been helpful at this stage of reaching out, where I’m trying to establish a certain degree of rapport, to just blatantly disagree with him and belittle his opinion.  Better to try to find some points of agreement and besides, the different religions of the world do have much in common.  Cristo had grown up in Mexico with a Catholic background, so he was familiar with the story of Adam and Eve and the Garden of Eden, which is where I began.  “It’s true, the Bible says that since Adam’s sin, everyone has knowledge of good and evil, a God-given conscience, and everyone has broken it in some way.  Though we know right from wrong, we still rebel against God every time we sin, in much the same way Adam and Eve rebelled against God when they chose to eat the forbidden fruit.  The problem that all religions claim to solve is how can we be reconciled with God even though we have rebelled against Him by breaking his commands?  Most would say we can pay for our sins with our good actions, but Christianity is unique in saying we can’t pay that debt ourselves, but that God paid it for us through Jesus’ death on the cross”.  Cristo had a lot of questions, and we talked there in that shopping aisle for over half an hour while employees and customers filed past.  It turned out that Cristo is seeking to know more about religion and has been visiting different churches in the process.  His last visit was a different location of my own church.  We made plans to meet again in a week or so to continue our discussion over coffee.  Please be in prayer for him!