I’m an extrovert, so you have to take all of this with the grain of salt, but this morning, as I stopped and talked to a coworker in the hallway on my way in work (bicycle helmet and water bottle in hand), I realized that I move ahead on work projects the same way I move ahead in conversations about faith. Here’s the idea.
Always ready, but not pushy. First Peter 3:15 says, “Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have.” This does not mean “Always be ready to seize the agenda and take the conversation somewhere you have not been invited to go.” It says to be ready to answer questions and go a little deeper.
In the normal course of life, people say all kinds of things. If you are prepared to listen and prepared to gently, respectfully talk about your own faith, good things happen. In the hallway this morning, I was able to give this colleague an update on the timing of a project we’ve been working on and made some plans for what’s next—not bad for a hallway conversation. The same thing happens when I talk to students about their faith.
I teach writing at a public policy school, and we have a student this year who runs a small fashion brand on the side, Oii. When I asked him what the name means, he translated it to “God is involved.” When I heard that, I knew it was game on. Not game on, “If you die tonight, do you know if you’d go to heaven?” But game on, “I need to follow up on this conversation and find out more!” The student was ready to talk, and our conversations have led to an ongoing Bible study, some times of prayer, attending two small local conferences together, and helping to connect this student with other like-hearted leaders in Africa.
“Let’s just be friends.” At work, not all ideas are worth pursuing, and not all conversations lead to deeper conversations. Many times, when I trial-balloon an idea with the boss or a colleague, we quickly realize it won’t work, the timing isn’t right, or we don’t have the capacity to follow through. The same thing happens frequently (in fact, I would say most of the time) when I say something about my faith or ask a student about theirs. Instead of jumping in, they politely change the topic of conversation. But even when someone is not ready to talk about their faith, at least not with me, I still decided, “Game on!” But this time, it is a different game. I’m not going to be pushy, but I am going to keep serving, keep helping, and keep getting to know this person. Who knows, maybe someday that door will be open, if not with me, perhaps with somebody else. At the very least, I will get to know this person better, and I will have done my job as their teacher.
“Have a good life.” There’s a third type of interaction. Last week, at the end of his two-year program, a student and I discovered we are both people of faith. We have always had a good working relationship, but we suddenly realized there was much more! He and his family will be moving in a week (he is going straight from graduate school back into military service), and I don’t know what’s next—but that is part of the deal. There’s no formula for “as you go, make disciples.” We have to live with the tension of always being ready, even eager, but not being pushy.
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Everybody’s personality and context are different. On a good day, how do you tend to pursue new ideas at work or at home? Are there parallels or lessons learned that could apply to how you pursue talking about faith with the people around you? What wisdom from the Bible makes the most sense to you about how you should pursue conversations about faith?
