I went to Barnes & Noble the other night because I wanted to read more of "Cold Tangerines," by Shauna Niequist. While I was waiting for my peppermint hot chocolate, I noticed two men talking to each other at one of the tables. One was a guy in his mid-late 20's who had his Bible out in front of him and the other was probably in his 50's somewhere. The 50-something one looked like he had lived a hard life and it seemed obvious that the younger guy wasn't his son. I was pretty sure the only reason they were hanging out at the B & N Starbucks was because the younger guy wanted to witness to the older man about Christ.
*Spoiler alert*... I was right.
Since I knew what was probably happening, I sat two tables over to hear their actual conversation. I really did try to focus on my book, but that ended up being too difficult because of what I could hear. 20-ish did a lot of talking and 50-ish seemed to be getting more and more annoyed with what he was saying. I was getting annoyed with what he was saying, too, even though it seemed like his life had been similar to mine. 50 was saying he just wasn't sure whether he could believe in God because of the things that have happened in his life. He also said something about Christians being hypocritical, which was another reason why he had trouble putting his faith in Jesus Christ. 20 made the point that he can only put his confidence in God because life's circumstances are temporary.
The thing that bothered me while I was listening to the two of them was how obviously different their life stories were. 20 talked about how he had been a Christian since he was 4; he's currently in seminary; he had been madly in love with a girl in college, but she dumped him and he realized his hope could only be in Christ; he sins, just like everyone else and, "even felt lust while he was on his way to Barnes & Noble today." I'm pretty sure 50 didn't even have a car because he asked 20 to drop him off somewhere when they were about to leave the store.
My point in writing about this is to give my opinion on what should have happened. I've heard it said many times, "Your greatest area of brokenness can become your greatest ministry." 20's areas of brokenness weren't nearly the same as 50's and I'm pretty sure that's the reason why 50 seemed so closed off. 20 needs to be sharing his story with high school and college students who are more likely to relate to what he's saying. It would have been great if 20 knew someone with a similar story to 50's and had asked that person to talk to him about Jesus. I think 50 would have been a lot more open to hearing from someone who had struggled financially or who had been through drugs, alcoholism, a difficult marriage, etc. (I don't know if those had been his problems, but, like I said... he seemed to have lived a hard life).
This is what I took from eavesdropping on that conversation: everyone has a story and they should share it with people. In doing so, they can connect others who have similar stories and allow them to relate to each other. I guess that's the thing that bothered me about what 20 was doing... I didn't hear him ask 50 any questions about what he had been through in life and it just sounded like he was preaching at him. If he had asked questions and seemed interested in the answers, he could have had the opportunity to point 50 toward people who had gone through similar circumstances. In turn, those people could have related to 50 and pointed him toward Jesus.
