Yesterday we did ATL around town. We split up in groups of three and went around town talking to people. We ended up asking a man if we could sit with him at dinner and started talking to him about life, random stuff and then got into Jesus. This man grew up in a Catholic Church for twelve years and then went on to train people in alter stuff for four years and then his priest died and he never went back. He never told us why he never fully went back but he had a lot of questions. Was Jesus the last prophet? Why was there a tree of good and evil in the garden to eat from in the first place? Did Jesus really walk the earth? If he did, did he really raise from the dead and was he really the son of God? Is there free will and pre-destination? He liked how the devil questioned God. He likes science and history. With all of those questions the three of us had a lot of fun talking to him and sharing our thoughts and he was super open, never arguing it was just a good conversation. We started the conversation with laughter and jokes and ended it the same way.
The three of us came back home after and debriefed what had just happened and really believed that we were suppose to talk to him for a reason. I believe and pray that he went back to his hotel and really asked Jesus all of this stuff. He grew up in a hypocritical environment being told what was bad and what was good and not being able to test his faith or ever really making it his own so he ultimately gave up. I believe that we should question God because he will speak to us and answer our questions and some of the questions will go unanswered and we will just have to ask him in heaven, but for now we have to just have faith. We were all taught at the beginning of the race that anything anyone tells us about ourselves or about God we should always question and make sure it aligns with scripture so we know if it is true or not. It is so easy to get the wrong impressions from “christians” because we are hypocritical, don’t welcome in the people that really do need Jesus and always tell people what they are doing wrong. BUT we are called to LOVE others. We are called to pray for our enemies. If we want to change the world and let people know about Jesus we need to act like him. We need to love that person in the grocery store line that is rude, we need to love that person that is gay and you think that it is so wrong, we need to shake the homeless mans hand sitting on the side of the street and talk to him because he is lonely and maybe drunk and smelly but who cares. If we don’t do these things how will we ever make a difference? Our one thing Jesus asks us to do is just to love. How hard is that?
“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. “ John 13:34
Just some thoughts from last night and stuff I am learning for myself(:
Thanks for taking time to read this,
Sydney
ALSO HAPPY NEW YEAR!!! Ill be posting pics on facebook soon so be looking for all of them(:
