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Today, almost all of my time is spent helping teens and young adults live "sold out" to Jesus without fear. A few things have changed since I walked the hallways of my high school as a spiritual schizophrenic--never sure which "mask" to put on next. The steps along the way of my growing love for God and people might help you on your journey. What's more important than how far along that path you are is what direction you're pointed.
1. Get Real. The first step in my journey was finally coming to the place where I became one person. You can't share something you're not living. When your walkman's off, your friends aren't around and you're alone in your room at night, who are you?
For years, I never knew if I was a jock, a party animal, a church usher, a good student or something else. It took a one-year backpacking trip around Europe and the Middle East and a lot of nights lying under the stars thinking about stuff for some changes to begin. God used some Arab and Jewish believers who loved Jesus enough to love each other; they convinced me that God was bigger than my little "church God". They helped me to see the inconsistency of my life and prayed me through the first baby steps of a real faith. We've got to get real before our faith will have any appeal.
2. Hear God talking. The concept of God actually speaking to you might be new, but God's a person, not a program or a formula. When I discovered this simple but revolutionary truth--that God's Spirit actually wanted to speak to me--I was 19 years old. Until then, church and every church-related activity, including evangelism, was a ritual not tied to a living relationship. Sure, I talked to my girlfriends and the guys on the team, and occasionally my parents. But God? Why? He couldn't talk back. Or could He?
After seeing the power of a daily two-way conversation--called prayer--in the lives of some of my backpacker friends in Jerusalem, I began to ask God to speak to me. My friends explained to me that the Holy Spirit had been sent to speak to me (John 16:12-15), among other things. The first thing God pointed out to me had little to do with evangelism, but involved asking for forgiveness from a person I had wronged. I tried to dismiss this but couldn't. Only after I obeyed did God's Spirit continue to speak.
Soon after that, a tough-looking guy with a long beard came into the youth hostel in Jerusalem where I was working. For the first time, I sensed God's Spirit prompting me to talk with someone. So I sat next to this man, whose name was George. I later discovered he was a well-known athlete and desert tracker in Israel. What I didn't know was that his life was a mess and God had brought him to the place of being open to receive help.
In listening to bits and pieces of his life story, I discovered he had been in a Hell's Angels motorcycle gang in Europe, was in trouble with the law and was living under an assumed identity in Israel. I shared very simply the discoveries I had been making of a God who wanted a relationship with us and was powerfully at work in the lives of those who let Him. I then asked George if I could pray with him, giving all his problems and lies, as well as his future and potential, to God. To my surprise, he agreed. It was amazing to see this tough ex-gang member kneel down and pour out his heart to God for the first time.
I later found out that God had been speaking to George for many years through different circumstances and people. I was only one of many people God used to intersect his life. Listening to God and letting Him set up conversations and acts of kindness has become the most exciting adventure I've ever experienced.
As I write this article, I'm on a plane returning from the Middle East. I was told at the airport check-in that my flight reservation had been cancelled and that I had been put on a waiting list of 46 people. I had remarkable peace as I sensed God's Spirit encouraging me to wait and assuring me that He would open the door to the plane. So I waited.
Just before the flight was to leave, the man in charge of checking in walked up to me and asked for my ticket. He said some things to one of his staff and got me on the flight. I found myself sitting next to a Lebanese man who had been reading the Scriptures for the past year but had not understood what he was reading. When he found out I was a Christian, he began to ask me question after question about various things in the Bible. The man and his family agreed to visit my home the next week to get more information on God. Coincidence? No way. It keeps happening to me, and it will happen to you, too, if you ask God's Spirit to speak.
The next step along the path of becoming the kind of person who shares the love of God in word and deed is easy to skip over. But if you do, you won't really connect with people.
3. Ask questions before giving answers. Asking questions is a lot harder than giving answers. I think Jesus was good at it. In Sunday school, I learned how to give the right answers. However, spending time with my friends who don't know Jesus has taught me to ask questions.
Mike was a university student who was into "crystal healing", transcendental meditation and a lot of other New Age stuff when I met him. He wanted to know if Jesus could heal. I shared with him several examples, including a few I'd seen myself, but added that Jesus didn't always choose to heal. I then asked how much he knew about Jesus. It was mostly secondhand information, so I asked if he wanted to read more about the teachings of Jesus and then we could "do lunch" to talk about the questions that he'd have. He agreed. We met at Pizza Hut every other week to talk over lunch. He had some good questions, and I threw in a few of my own. Before our third meeting, I asked God to really open Mike's heart, not just his mind. In the middle of our lunch, we were talking about our families, and I asked Mike about his father. He was silent for a bit; then he told me his father was dead. I felt God's Spirit prompting me to ask Mike if his father had taken his own life.
When I sensitively asked that question, Mike began to sob. It was the key which opened up his heart. I discovered that Mike had gotten into meditation, seances and a lot of other New Age stuff because he wanted to communicate with his dead father. He was just a college kid who really missed his dad and wanted to talk to him.
Mike gave his pain and his life to Christ when he realized someone cared enough to listen. There are lots of Mikes out there waiting to be asked the right questions. Asking questions helps us hear what the real needs are in the lives of our friends.
4. Create questions. Don't just ask them. Something I'm really into doing on a regular basis is Random Acts of Senseless Kindness ((RASK). RASK involves taking a good look around you, at your community or neighbourhood, and getting your friends together to meet any needs you see. This includes washing people's windows, cleaning the toilets at a local restaurant or raking leaves in the fall--all for free.
We did leaf-raking one fall in a community with a lot of elderly people. At one house, the people were not home, but they had at least a foot of leaves in their yard. We started raking and had filled about 20 garbage bags when the elderly couple drove up the driveway and stopped. They didn't get out of their car for quite a while. I walked over and explained what we were doing and assured them it was free.
Then they asked me a question I've heard every time we do a RASK: "So, why are you doing this?"
Now that's a good question! We usually respond that we want to practically share the love of Jesus with our community. A lot of people then begin to ask good questions we would never have had the chance to talk about if our actions hadn't opened the door.
When this couple understood why we were raking their leaves and realized we wouldn't accept money for it, they literally began to cry. The man thanked me before we left and said, "You've just removed the negative image I've had of teens today. I didn't believe youth like you existed."
I'm no longer living in a small town, and my parents don't seem nearly as strict, but I still get asked if I'm a Christian at an occasional party.
Randy Friesen is director of Youth Mission International and lives in Waterloo, Ont. This article originally appeared in the October-November, 1995 issue of With.
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