In church on Sunday, Phil showed a video of an atheist comedian recounting an event that had apparently left a significant impact on him, and has left me pondering for the last couple of days। He began to tell a story about a Christian businessman who had seen his show and came back the following night to genuinely compliment him. He seemed blow away that this guy simply wanted to compliment his show and tell how much he had enjoyed it. And he gave the comedian a pocket-sized Gideon Bible.
This started the comedian discussing how he was pretty sure this random guy knew he was an atheist and he didn't change his beliefs because of this and so on and so forth. But then he posed this question (paraphrased): If you know there is a heaven and a hell and believe people can or cannot go to hell, how much do you have to hate someone to NOT tell them about your beliefs and try to get them to believe with you?
Wait...what?! I...what?!
He continued with this example: "If I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that a truck is going to hit you, and you don't believe me, there is a point at which I am going to tackle you!" .... okay.... "And this is much more important than that."
Well, I have to admit, when you put it that way, it makes a lot of sense...wait a second...this is coming from a guy who doesn't believe in God, or that He exists or that there's eternal life after death...if he sees the importance in sharing my faith with others, then why don't we always see it?
This video got me thinking about a number of things....one being that this guy (and others like him) don't believe in God. Yeah, I've heard about that over and over, people don't believe in God. But wait, that means they don't believe in Jesus. In my Sweet Savior. How can that be?? How can they live life without my Savior...and theirs if they'd believe?? I suddenly find myself feeling terrible for these people...hurting for them....because they are missing out on so much! And some of them don't want to know...which almost hurts more than people who just don't know about my Jesus yet...but if you don't want to know and close yourself off to Him...you don't want to know my Savior....and that's so sad to me!
When the comedian posed his question about how much you have to hate someone to not share with them what we believe is the Best News possible...I felt like someone had punched me in the stomach. But also, as I listened to what he was saying, I realized that I don't necessarily have to go around telling every person I see (whether they want to hear or not) about my Jesus, but I can show them, and tell them if they want to hear. Just like the random guy did....he simply said a few kind and genuine words and the comedian couldn't get over it. It was like he couldn't figure out what to do with that...how to respond, what to make of it. Do our simpl little actions (whether Christ-like or not) really have that significant of an impact?? REALLY?? Wow. That kind of throws things into a whole other perspective...
Obviously this brings up the point that we, as Christ-followers ought to show Jesus to people who don't know Him as their Savior, even in little ways like encouraging words and kindness and other little things. But what about the people who already know Jesus as their Savior? Do we sometime live under the idea that they're already a Christian so we don't need to focus on them? Whether we do or not, I believe we, even though we already know Jesus, need the love and care of other Christ-followers, too. Maybe someone is hurting, struggling to trust Jesus, is lonely, not so sure they want to stick with this whole "Christianity" thing. Or maybe they're doing okay, but it's always nice to know you're appreciated and loved and wanted, right? So maybe we should show Jesus and His love to everyone....whether they know Him or not...right??
