April 20th, Being A Witness Part II

Two Opportunities

Interesting that my last post was about learning how to naturally talk about God with people who don't know Him...  Out of the blue, twice in one day I had an opportunity to be a witness for God and felt like I missed both opportunities.

First, one of the Quality Assurance team leads at work started a conversation with me by my desk.  We talked about our plans for the next year or so and what our kids were doing since they are around the same ages.  It turned out that her oldest daughter goes to school where our church meets on Sundays (our church meets in their school gym).  We talked about the church for a bit and it was a pristine opportunity for me to invite her out to church, but I didn't.  Arg.

My second opportunity came when my recruiter took me out to lunch.  It was the first time I had an opportunity to really chat with her one on one.  For a millennial, she was much more forthright and honest about where she was at in life than I thought she'd be.  I was surprised.

At one point in the conversation we talked about how life is a bit of a rat race.  How it would be nice to find a work/life balance so that one could travel if and when they wanted to and not have to worry about bills or finding a job when they get back.  This made me think of the book The Four Hour Work Week by Tim Ferris - so I recommended it to her.

Later though, given the different directions the conversation took, I found myself thinking that I'm a pretty good evangelist for certain ideas (and books), but I'm a pretty big chicken when it comes to sharing what I believe.  Sigh.

This is all frustrating in a way, and certainly leaves me with questions.  I want to be sensitive and not be 'fanatical' about my faith, and yet I also want to be naturally enthusiastic about it.  Something tells me that I still haven't yet experienced God's love in a way that makes me want to be that kind of 'natural enthusiast' about God.  There's something to hope for, shoot for, look forward to.

I've been going over that second opportunity in my mind for the last 24 hours.  In a situation like that, I need to share what my experience was when I didn't have purpose and meaning in my life, and how God changed that.  I shouldn't be saying 'you need to try this!'  Rather, 'here's what I found!'  And then think 'How can I share with this person's open heart so that if I never got an opportunity to talk to this person again I'd feel good about how things were left?

Would you agree?