6/14/16 Jason, Jay about 20
As believers wanting to share the Gospel, we often
focus on getting the conversation started.
But then what? What if someone of
a totally different and unbelieving world view responds with interest and tons
of questions, hardly waiting until one question is answered before going on to
another?
That’s what we found in Jason and Jay, two college
roommates with hardly any religious background between them and zero interest
in Christianity based on the caricatures of Christians they have seen in the
media. We had started a sidewalk
conversation with them that went on for 40 minutes. The whole time they maintained that they were
totally in opposition to our beliefs, and they came up with question after
question to refute Christianity. I
believe our answers were reasonable, but honestly I don’t think we could expect
them to change their thinking on any one of the multiple topics we touched on,
topics that have taken us half our lifetime to wrap our minds around even with
the benefit of having a Bible-centered world view.
What we needed, and what this conversation would never
have continued without, was patience.
Paul’s admonition to Timothy was to “Preach the word; be prepared in
season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction.” Paul knew the importance of patience when we
share our faith, and I am starting to realize just how important it is
too. After dozens of patient responses
to their questions and careful instruction even though I am aware they would
probably forget most of the details of our responses, Jason and Jay said they were
thankful for our patience, our civil conversation without arguments, and they
could see there are reasonable responses to their many questions from the
Christian perspective.
We live in a time of instant gratification and the daily
resolving of conflicts within the time frame of a half hour or hour long
television program. We choose to hang
around people of like mind who support our point of view, and we are often
unaware that even if we don’t choose to do so social media like Facebook will choose
them for us. We avoid deep conversations
about controversial topics, or we keep them at a distance online. We get what we want, when we want it, and in the
midst of our fast-paced culture patience is becoming a lost art. Patience is a requirement for sharing our
faith, and it can only be learned through prayer and practice.
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