Sharing Faith

For the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. (1 Corinthians 1:18) 

Way back in high school, when I first started trying to follow Jesus, I was really open about my faith. I wrote songs about God and watched Christian TV (even though most of the programming was geared towards old folks). Everyone kind of knew where I stood with Jesus, which I think was a good thing. However, as I got into college I realized that a lot of people around me, some really close to me, withheld parts of themselves because of my faith. They wouldn't tell me certain things or swear around me; ultimately, they didn't want to "disappoint me" if they weren't living the way I did. It was a rude awakening when I found this out, as I asked myself if I even really knew these friends and family members around me...

A teenage me at our local skatepark in my "Got Christ?" beanie.

And so, when I became an adult, I decided to be a little more clandestine about my faith, usually not revealing it until I had gotten a chance to know someone fairly well. Build the relationship before I dropped the faith bomb. It was still pretty obvious I think, as I didn't really talk like most people and would do things like go to church and all-in-all lived a pretty "clean" lifestyle. But after about 10-15 years of doing this, I realized that I don't think there was much fruit in living this way either. I couldn't point to that many people whose lives were changed because I had shared my faith, and so I decided maybe this wasn't the way either...

Here is a song I wrote for my high school band, Minus the Standard. It's a song about how big God is vs. how small we are, yet He loves us still.

More recently, I've decided to go back to my roots a bit (though hopefully in a more approachable, less dogmatic version of myself than in high school). I've started being way more open with guys at work about what I believe and why. I don't push it down anyone's throats, but it comes up naturally and now I am just more honest about what I actually think and believe, while still trying to leave room for others to disagree.

Most people I meet are willing to engage in this kind of talk, even if they believe otherwise, which is encouraging. Many have already worked through these ideas and have rejected them; some militantly. Others are open. Several agree, or have adopted some version of what I think is the truth. And many avoid the topic altogether, or maybe just choose to keep it personal.

Of course there are times when I am perplexed about why someone wouldn't want to have faith in this Higher Power -- it just adds so much stability and hope in this pretty difficult world. But then this morning I read that verse above and it makes a little more sense. I've had friends on all ends of the "wisdom" spectrum reject Jesus -- some of them are the smartest people I know and have thoroughly worked through issues of faith, and others have more of a life-experience sort of wisdom that have still come to the same conclusions. But God has said for centuries that His wisdom is not like the world's, and that one day He would flip-flop conventional wisdom into something truly beautiful and amazing, which is what Jesus did.

Take a good look, friends, at who you were when you got called into this life. I don’t see many of “the brightest and the best” among you, not many influential, not many from high-society families. Isn’t it obvious that God deliberately chose men and women that the culture overlooks and exploits and abuses, chose these “nobodies” to expose the hollow pretensions of the “somebodies”? That makes it quite clear that none of you can get by with blowing your own horn before God. Everything that we have—right thinking and right living, a clean slate and a fresh start—comes from God by way of Jesus Christ. That’s why we have the saying, “If you’re going to blow a horn, blow a trumpet for God.” (1 Corinthians 1:27 MSG)

So I guess if there is any kind of conclusion to this, it'd be to share your faith honestly (it's a command!) and without harsh judgement ("speak the truth in love"), but if people aren't ready to receive, that's okay. Faith is a gift from God and so, like Emery said, "it's not our job to make anyone believe." Just pray for their hearts, share your story, and be ready when they are ready to guide them into the Kingdom. 

For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. (Ephesians 2:8-10)