Two Stories (part one)

The Christian story in 9 words, “God put on flesh and moved into the neighborhood.”

The Christian story in 8 words: God took the risk to forgive in advance. (with thanks to Phillip Yancey)

The Christian story in 7 words: “See, I am making all things new.”

The Christian story in 6 words: In You I find my identity.

The Christian story in 5 words: We’re not perfect, just forgiven.

The Christian story in 4 words: Hope doesn’t disappoint us.

The Christian story in 3 words: “Come, follow me.”

The Christian story in 2 words: He lives!

The Christian story in 1 word: Grace.

Two stories (part two)

The story I fight against every day in 10 words: People far away need love more than people next door.

The story I fight against every day in 9 words: I am supposed to do this all by myself.

The story I fight against every day in 8 words: If I just pray harder, I can change.

The story I fight against every day in 7 words: Hiding mistakes will make them less painful.

The story I fight against every day in 6 words: God works mostly through powerful people.

The story I fight against every day in 5 words: I help God fix others.

The story I fight against every day in 4 words: I’m okay, you’re okay.

The story I fight against every day in 3 words: Humility is overrated.

The story I fight against every day in 2 words: Try harder.

The story I fight against every day in 1 word: Me.

Selling Christ

Dear Tony,

So, you’re not opposed to talking about spirituality. Though I was surprised, I shouldn’t have been. Over the last months I have learned that pretty much everyone is open to talking about spirituality.

I have found that you, and many other college students, enjoy talking about God. It’s a fascinating point of contention, historical debate, and modern-day controversy. Some of your peers enjoy the debate of mediums and perspectives (how God, in their minds, can mean different things for different people). What nobody likes talking about is that there could be one truth, one view of God that is true. Very few people like being wrong about things that are black and white, even less so things they can’t see and in their life have been poorly represented. Today I felt a connection to you while you were talking about discovering God, and about faith. You said, “if God does exist, and I am really looking for him or her, then I will find God.”

The hangup, of course, is the feeling like I need to sell you Christ. How do I naturally move us from hypothetical conversations about a distant being to a personal savior? One of my good friends says that most people like Jesus, but they aren’t willing to sell the farm for Him. I like LeBron James and Bono, but that doesn’t mean I’m ready to call them my savior. So, Tony, how do I move us into conversations about Jesus? Why do I feel the need to sell Christ to you? Did you say it best, that if you pursue Him he will reveal himself to you? Or is Christianity something that has to be explained and can’t be figured out without a little help?

What can I say to convince you? Or do I need to? Is there supposed to be a specific order to how all this goes?