We say we want others to know Jesus. We spend hours at church crafting the “perfect” mission statement that will surely hook the non-believer. Yes, I do think that most Christians want others to meet Jesus, but our actions show that it’s not that important to us.
Sometimes absurdity wakes us up, so I put together some ideas to help. Maybe you can add one or two in the comments.
- Make sure you only know facts about Jesus. Just spend your time reading about Jesus. Never spend time with Jesus. Don’t talk to Him, walk with Him, cry with Him. Don’t know Him in an intimate way. That way when you try to introduce Him to someone, it will be just information about Jesus, not the person of Jesus.
- Ignore your neighbors. You know, the people who live next to you, across the street and behind you? Just keep waving at them when you pull into your garage. By all means don’t invite them to your backyard BBQ, birthday parties or any other celebration.
- Live a double life. Oh I don’t do that you say. I wish I could be that bold. But really. Are you one way around your Christian buddies and totally different around others? What about when you are at work, school or at play? Maybe you don’t struggle with lust, anger or gossip, but what about timidity or apathy?
- Keep to yourself. After you pull into the garage, the last thing you want to do is venture back outside. Or, make sure that your church does everything on that campus. By all means don’t go to where the people are.
- Spend all your money on yourself. Definitely don’t give to your church or help those in need. Keep spending 110% of the money on yourself. As far as church goes, keep rationalizing that 80-90% of your money needs to stay right here spent on people who already know Jesus or have heard about Him over and over while millions, maybe billions of people around the world have never even heard the name of Jesus. And not one cent is spent to give the chance to hear His name much less know Him.
- Never mention the name of Jesus. Refer to Jesus in general terms, you know, like Higher Power or the Big Guy upstairs.
- Handle life on your own. If you can do this, you personally will not need Jesus. If you don’t need Him or think about including Him in your life, you probably won’t think about telling anyone else about Him.
- Cover up your failures. Oh this is a subtle one. Act like you do everything right all the time. That way no one will approach you with their stuff, or if they do, they will expect YOU to be the answer, not Jesus.
- Believe that there are other ways. Relativism and tolerance creeps into our theology. If we really believed that Jesus is the only way, we would make sure they met Him.
- Stay away from people who are different that you. What do I mean? Stay away from anyone who believes differently, looks differently, talks differently, lives differently. You keep safe that way. And they will never hear about Jesus, from you at least.
- Convince yourself that they are not interested. They probably have life figured out. He is not the Answer for everyone anyways right? Just leave them alone.
- Let it wait until tomorrow. Your own life matters more. Everyone else can just wait. Fill up your time with social media, reality TV, family activities, and so on. Concern yourself more with how you look, what you have or don’t have, how many friends you have, what you get to do. That way you won’t even think about anyone else.
Even when our actions say differently, we do want people who don’t know Jesus to meet Him. So read this list for what it is—and if it fits…
And one more: ignore those promptings of “conscience” you may often feel. It can’t be the Holy Spirit letting me know there is a area of sin in my life. If I ignore this feeling, I will feel it less next time – until finally I may not feel it at all. THEN I will be more comfortable – and tolerant.
Ray, Great one to add!