As we continue in our discussion on “Who’s next 2 U?” a look at Paul’s first missionary journey I want to share with you this week about an experience I had growing up. My guess is that many of us face these type of situations that can cause us a lot of grief and pain internally.
In my sermon I talked a lot about name calling. When I was growing up my parents sent us to church because they knew it was the right thing to do. I really enjoyed church and even accepted Christ the summer before sixth grade. As I started to change things in my life like most sixth graders would. I had to stop cheating, lying and even some other stuff that I had going on as well. In the midst of making these changes I did not change my friends. This led to several problems of which I am not going to get into.
As a over ambitious and rather zealous new Christian I wanted to share my faith with everyone and invite them to church. So, I started with my friends. While I will admit that I kind of took the whole preaching to my friends a little too serious, they new exactly where I stood. We would be hanging out and somebody would start to do something that was not a good idea or could have led to something bad and I would be right there letting them know that they were sinning. One day while I was with my friends it all came to a screeching halt. One of them let out this statement, “Hey, Jesus boy! If you are going to hang out here you are going to have stop all that preaching.”
I had never been so embarrassed or hurt in my life. I was trying to do what was right or at least that is what I thought. I as I have grown in my walk with Christ I must remember that being a Christian brings opposition and just like Paul I need to be able to take it and let God get the glory. What have your experiences been?
P.S. I have since learned better methods of communicating Christ to people who are still outside that relationship.
umm…I need help with a reserch papper I’m writting on scienctology and the whole thing is just confussing you think you can help me understand the concept of this a little better because I so confussed on everything!
How do you know what you can say. I guess I got kind of caught up in the idea for a while that it’s ok if other people have other ideas but its not my place to tell them. what do you think about that?
never mind I changed my topic this was to hard for me to grasp and way confusing…I was getting caught up in it the whole science part of it and ..I JUST DIDN’T GET IT.
Kate – I do think that it is our place to share with them what we know as truth. I also believe we have a responsibility to communicate who God is to everyone we can. I just don’t think that we need to be doing it in a disrespectful manner. Or in a I am going to shove this in your face kind of thing. While I agree that it is okay for others to have a different view, I just think that we should have relationships with others that give us a chance to have these types of conversations.
I guess it is okay for others to have different views, we just have to communicate who God is through love and conversation. To just leave them thinking the way they do and never taking advantage of sharing with them the truth.
ok my toughts about this is that i have been through some similar situations and i think it is realy tough to deal with all of it.
christine – it is tough to deal with. I now that there were times when I was in high school that I wanted to run and hide under a bush and just pray that the whole God thing would disappear and never return. I wished I could get my friendships back as if I had never gone down that road.
However, after a little time God would work in me and give me the faith and the strength to continue. Even if I was being made fun of. Somehow you have to find it in yourself to continue even when the road is difficult. Let me pray for all of us…
“Dear God, we know that we are not to operate on our strength, but rather to lift you up and find our strength through the Holy spirit that you send upon us. Lord, it can be really hard at time to sit and take what people are saying or doing to us because we believe in you. Please give us the strength and the perseverance to follow you no matter what and to see you as our stronghold in our times of need. You are an awesome God and I thank you for suffering ridicule for us. Amen!”
This is very hard for me to deal with. I’m glad you brought this up. I can share one of my experiences.
Last summer all my best friends were in band and I thought that they would always be my best friends. We would have conversations about God and they knew I was a Christian. But somewhere down the road they decided they didn’t like me and ended up saying some really horrible things. Especially my best friend’s boyfriend.My friend ended up siding with her boyfriend and a bunch of my friends acted like I didn’t exist, especially after I quit marching band. And it was just really hurtful when I thought I’d be friends with them, I guess forever. It took months for some people to talk to me again even though I had felt I didn’t do anything wrong. I just kept the door open for friendship but didn’t push anything. Things actually turned out a whole lot better. I am now incredibly close to a lot of friends at church and have branched out from just band friends and I have learned to deal with that hurt. Even if they reject me, if they reject Christ, it isn’t my fault or my failure. And I’m always improving on how I talk to people about Him and it is their choice to accept Him. Not mine.There’s my input!
Lindsey – thanks for sharing that. That is an incredible story and I know that it was difficult to go through. Thanks!