The Everyday Club

6/01/10 Carlos, 21
I stopped at the park today on my way home after work where a young man (Carlos) sat watching people fishing at the pond. "I have an interesting question for you. Where do you think you'll be in a hundred years?" He looked confused. "In other words, do you think there is some sort of existence after we die?" He thought for a moment and answered "I don't know how we can know". I asked "Is this something you think about much?" "All the time" he answered quietly. Carlos told me he had grown up Catholic but has long since given up on church, saying he had problems with many of the hypocritical people he saw in church who acted religious for an hour at church but totally the opposite the rest of the week. I complimented him on this, saying "it's good that this bothers you, as it should - because people who say they are Christians should act like it. But just as a person doesn't become a car by standing in a garage, they aren't necessarily Christians just because they are in church." Carlos has been distressed lately by the ugliness he sees in people's attitudes while working at a fast food restaurant, and viewed himself as a much better person than them until I used some of the Ten Commandments to show him how he really looks by God's standard rather than man's. He took great interest in hearing the Gospel after this. He has been reading up on other religions lately, but I think our conversation may have convinced him to give Christianity another look.