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Apathetic Urgency

Mini-Evangelist

When I was small, I was quite the evangelist. "Repent or face damnation!" I shouted to my eight-year-old friends. "The end is near, and hell is hot!" I preached to the heathens on the monkey bars. Well, maybe I wasn't quite that forceful. But I really was an evangelist. To be honest, Billy Graham and I were pretty much rivals.

Most of my young evangelism efforts were focused on the few non-Christian friends that I had. Since I was often the founder and CEO of various detective clubs and handwritten, neighborhood newspapers, the friends who joined me in these ventures had no choice but to listen to my insights about eternal life.

Since most of my clubs were headquartered in my closet, I would explain Christ's love to my friends amidst the shoes and sweaters. Sometimes it would make them think; most of the time they were pretty sure they already went to church every once in awhile. They would go home and ask their parents about their spiritual situation and then return to reassure me that they had been baptized when they were little.

Although my witnessing didn't always produce soul harvests, I certainly was zealous and unashamed.

When the Fire Died Down

Somewhere along the road from pre-teen to adult, I lost my evangelistic convictions. I became very content to stay silent, to smile hesitantly at things that I knew were wrong. Talking about God became uncomfortable and forced. When I did speak about Christ, I felt like my words slurred together in a useless explanation of a God people didn't feel they needed.

I began to weaken and bend when I entered public high school. Although I was all gung ho in my plans — I was going to wear a Christian t-shirt and my Jesus Freak dog tag every day — my convictions quickly shriveled in light of the swearing and confident airs of my freshmen peers. I was scared of being the unpopular Christian, so I began to blend in.

My personal method of evangelism began to include laughing nervously at immoral jokes and saying absolutely nothing about Jesus being the only way to the Father, about life as a disciple of Christ being the only fulfilling way to live. It wasn't very successful. Sure, my friends knew I was religious and that I didn't drink or swear. They knew I was a "good girl." So what?

Can I Get a Witness?

The simple truth is that many of the people we see around us do not have eternal life, and are living lives that are not glorifying to God. They are unaware of who God really is and the praise He wholly deserves. Many of us (oftentimes myself included) are living utterly hedonistic lives. Paul, when writing to the Philippians, aches for the those who are not followers of Christ, for those who pursue false means of salvation.

For, as I have often told you before and now say again even with tears, many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame. Their mind is on earthly things (3:19, NIV).

Traditional evangelism is often an uncomfortable thing for me. In his book, Blue Like Jazz,¹ Donald Miller talks about how Christians often feel the need to sell Jesus like a product, just as we would a vacuum cleaner or a new soap. I think this is true.

Evangelism should be less about getting people to buy a product that will enhance their lives, and more about helping people see (through the way we live and love) that God is true and right and worthy of glory. He is what we should desire, He is who deserves our worship — not jobs, not MTV, not nice cars. We all worship things we believe are valuable or worthy. It's just that the non-Christians around us are not aware that the Lord is the only one deserving of honor.

For some reason, Jesus' command to love my neighbor doesn't seem to affect me all that much as I walk by tons of people each day who are living an unfulfilled existence, and who are unaware of the eternal life in Jesus Christ that they lack.

Reality Check

My burden for the unsaved had all but disappeared until a few months ago. My friends and I had the brilliant idea to get up way before the sun had even considered shining, in order to go skiing.

We were cruising down the interstate, chatting about how awesome the slopes would be, when we noticed that the traffic ahead of us was slowing down. We came to a complete stop, along with the rest of the cars on the interstate, and watched as an air ambulance helicopter landed on the road ahead of us. Another helicopter soon landed — this time it was a news chopper apparently reporting on the horrible accident that lay just out of sight.

When we finally started moving again, we saw the reality of the carnage that had stopped our travel. A smashed car lay in the ditch to our right, completely flipped over. About 30 feet from the car was a man lying facedown, dead. He hadn't been covered up yet, and his body lay still, his soul gone to one of two places. I began to cry.

Here was a guy who had probably been carefree a minute ago, not even aware that his life was about to end. I became very quiet as my thoughts turned to his salvation. What if this man hadn't ever confessed Jesus Christ as Lord? He had no more chances to get right with God, to live a life that glorified Christ. His fate was sealed with an unexpected car accident.

I probably wouldn't have dared to talk about Jesus with this man, or to even show him love if I passed him on the street. I was too busy skiing, hanging out with friends and living my own little Christian life.

Let's Get This Party Started

In the book of John, Jesus is praying to His Father and says, "Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent" (v. 17:3). If we really believe that knowing God is eternal life, then we have to share that information with others. It is selfish and hateful to keep it to ourselves.

We are called to show Christ to the world through loving one another. We are asked to live lives of discipleship and to care about others.

The issue is not about our comfort with sharing the gospel. It's not even about saying the right words, or knowing all of the answers. God does the saving. We're just required to be obedient, share the truth and show love.

I have found eternal life. I know God, I know His Son, and I know the truth. It is shameful for me to hoard this knowledge. If I'm truly in love with Jesus, if life is better with Him, then I should be anxious for others to hear about it. Share the love, people. Share the love.

A new command I give to you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another — Jesus (John 13:34-35).