Evangelism is not one of my gifts.
Case in point: last week in class I overheard a girl saying to the guy next to her (both of whom I know are Christians) "sometimes I just want to stand up and preach the Gospel!" I had a vague idea of what she was talking about, it had to do with some comments/language used in class. What does this have to do with evangelism, you ask?
In a setting like that I would not presume to push my religious beliefs on anyone else there. Her judgmental-ness was so off-putting that when I read her essay about going on a mission trip to Honduras, I was not nearly as moved as I should have been.
Call me a cynic--go ahead. But I cannot stand Christians who have a holier-than-thou attitude. They make me afraid to claim that I am one of them.
I think piety has gained a negative connotation in our society. The word itself (defined as reverence for God or devout fulfillment of religious obligations) is unassuming enough, yet has been transformed into a synonym for that kind of judgmental Christianity. Would you want to be called pious?
In our attempts to "modernize" Christianity, many words that people like my parents grew up using have become irrelevant, and even harsh--words like pious, devout, zealous--and they ring in my ears in a very negative tone.
I know that my classmates probably need Jesus--in fact, some of them need Him very much. (I have read their work about their lives--some of them are distressed indeed.) But hearing that girl make that comment left me with one reaction: What a pious and judgmental thing to say.
And now of course I am perpetuating the situation by judging her and her overly-zealous faith. None of us have this down.
skip to main |
skip to sidebar
we are falling through the cracks every minute of our lives... i want to witness the dawn and the dusk and the spaces in between... i am learning daily the art of observation...
1 comment:
Could not have said it better myself. Isn't it hard to know how another will take your faith? Sometimes i am so verbal about what God is doing in my life and what i don't know is how if that person is thinking that i am claiming to be this super Christian, i am not. But sometimes i want to shout the gospel not in literal terms, but in relational. I want people to know that there is a way, that its real, that he is real and that he has a different life for them, and i was the person that rolled my eyes at Christians for years, but then i met Jesus, and now I get it. Forget the "evangelizing" and "sharing the gospel" and just tell them about the man that changed the way we could connect with our heavenly father, just tell them what he did in your life, and leave annoying religion out of it. i can't stand people that can sum my Jesus into a "religious ritual" and pass out tracks that are the most hidious things i have ever seen. then claim if you don't think only christians are going to heaven and everyone else is hell bound you are as lost as the rest of them. who cares about heaven and hell, when Jesus saved me from hell i made for myself, kingdom of heaven is now. Jesus wanted us to live it today.
Post a Comment