Choose one of the faith conversations you've engaged in during the past couple of weeks to share any insight you gained in talking about your faith, that was helpful, that was difficult, etc.
I now live in Grand Rapids, and for Easter I went to visit my two sets of Grandparents in Racine, Wisconsin (note: I do not intend to get Dutch bingo started).
My father's parents are really defensive when I try to talk to them about faith and are greatly suspicious of organized religion. But I am their grandkid, and so they sort of have to humor me.
I try to probe them to see what they really believe, and it seems like they are Unitarian - that is, they believe in a God who will judge us upon our actions and then send us to heaven or hell accordingly. Of course, my Grandma recently said that she cannot envision a heaven filled with joyous celebration when the people there know that in Hell below, people are in extreme agony.
I try to talk to them about grace and the Good News and Hope, but they don't seem to hear it, or treat it as mere rhetoric. I try to talk about Jesus Christ (he's what the Good News is all about), but we usually end up discussing the merits of "religion."
I am often discouraged as I leave their house, thinking to myself that they are stubborn or that I am not doing a good job out of it.
I make sure to pray for them and for myself whenever I go to visit them.
I am learning that if you are set on evangelism (which I believe is the core of the New Testament), then you should prepare yourself for discouragement. That doesn't sound very good, does it!?
I guess what I need to learn is patience and hope.
A quick response to Ryan--I think that family members are almost always the hardest people to talk about your faith with, because of all of the family dynamics that get in the way. Remember that God can use us even when we are blundering!!!
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I now live in Grand Rapids, and for Easter I went to visit my two sets of Grandparents in Racine, Wisconsin (note: I do not intend to get Dutch bingo started).
My father's parents are really defensive when I try to talk to them about faith and are greatly suspicious of organized religion. But I am their grandkid, and so they sort of have to humor me.
I try to probe them to see what they really believe, and it seems like they are Unitarian - that is, they believe in a God who will judge us upon our actions and then send us to heaven or hell accordingly. Of course, my Grandma recently said that she cannot envision a heaven filled with joyous celebration when the people there know that in Hell below, people are in extreme agony.
I try to talk to them about grace and the Good News and Hope, but they don't seem to hear it, or treat it as mere rhetoric. I try to talk about Jesus Christ (he's what the Good News is all about), but we usually end up discussing the merits of "religion."
I am often discouraged as I leave their house, thinking to myself that they are stubborn or that I am not doing a good job out of it.
I make sure to pray for them and for myself whenever I go to visit them.
I am learning that if you are set on evangelism (which I believe is the core of the New Testament), then you should prepare yourself for discouragement. That doesn't sound very good, does it!?
I guess what I need to learn is patience and hope.
A quick response to Ryan--I think that family members are almost always the hardest people to talk about your faith with, because of all of the family dynamics that get in the way. Remember that God can use us even when we are blundering!!!
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