1 Peter 3:15 :
"But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have..."
I've been thinking lately about my own awkwardness and discomfort when put on the spot about my faith. I love to talk about my relationship with God, but I can be easily intimidated by the tough questions others may ask. I'm so concerned that I will give them the wrong answer, that I end up fumbling and bumbling around what I am trying to say. I usually end up kicking myself later when I've finally come up with the perfect way to word what I was thinking- too late. I've certainly always been more comfortable with acting out my faith than with speaking about it. However, lately I've been feeling convicted that I need to stop using my own comfort levels as an excuse.
Last night an analogy came to me that really drove home to me the importance of sharing my faith with others:
If I had foreknowledge of a huge national disaster or tragedy before it had occurred, say for example a tsunami, or a forest fire was coming our way, there is no doubt in my mind that I would be running from neighbor to neighbor warning them. On my way out of town I'd be yelling out the windows of my car, and running into gas stations to warn total strangers of what I knew was coming. I'd be banging on doors, shaking people awake, and causing a scene - and it would be worth it! I would want to let every single person that I physically could reach or contact know that they were in danger so that they could save themselves.
How is this any different from the situation we face as Christians every single day on Earth? We know and believe in our hearts that the knowledge of our Savior can save multitudes of people for Christ. We believe that hearing and believing the Good News of Jesus is literally a matter of eternal LIFE or DEATH! Forget total strangers for a moment, why am I not at the very least taking every effort to introduce family, friends, coworkers and other people I care about to God? I mean, really, If I say that I care about someone, why wouldn't it be a top priority for me to pray for them and at least plant the seed that could save their life? Going back to people I don't know, if I wouldn't leave a perfect stranger to die or go through a disaster alone, why do I avoid bringing up their relationship with the Creator?
A few years ago I saw a YouTube video made by atheist comedian, Penn Jillette. He makes a profound statement about proselytizing (trying to convert non-believers) that I think all Christians (an non-Christians) should take very seriously. He says:
“I’ve always said that I don’t respect people who don’t proselytize.... If you believe that there’s a heaven and a hell, and people could be going to hell or not getting eternal life, and you think that it’s not really worth telling them this because it would make it socially awkward – and atheists who think people shouldn’t proselytize and who say just leave me alone and keep your religion to yourself – how much do you have to hate somebody to not proselytize? How much do you have to hate somebody to believe everlasting life is possible and not tell them that?"
(The Full Video is here)
What answer can I give him?
What if one day we stand before God to give an account of our life and we are presented with a number. Not the number of good deeds we've done, or the amount of money we had given to the church, or even the number of times we've used God's name in vain. What if we were presented with the devastating number of the hundreds (or maybe thousands?) of people the might have entered the kingdom of Heaven if we had just talked to them about Jesus?
It gives me the chills just thinking about it...
(Photo from http://admiralcreedy.blogspot.com/2011/07/wonder-of-cross.html)
