My Moral High Ground

My penultimate post of the day, I promised I would dedicate to a friend of mine, for the sake of anonymity I shall call him ‘Ojneb’.

The hardest part about living as a Christian isn’t the self control, it isn’t the sacrifices, it isn’t the stereotypes, it isn’t even the religion. The hardest part about living as a Christian is knowing people that don’t.

When somebody changes your life around as drastically as God did with mine you want to tell the whole world. Like falling in love you long to shout it from the roof tops, proclaim it from the highest mountains,spreading his word and love. Unfortunately it soon divulges that not everyone is as super enthusiastic about your new found salvation as yourself and your high spirits are quickly dampened. Dont get me wrong, most people are wonderfully accepting and respectful if not a little scathing, but suddenly you realise that unless they know this love for themselves they will never truly understand. Your heart breaks.You may have your own name safely stored in heaven, but the people around you, the people you love and care about, know little or nothing of what that means.

Evangelism is a tricky character, we rarely hit the mark, being either too intimidating or too nonchalant. We fumble over badly memorised Bible passages and then end up saying something we never intended, offending everyone in close proximity (this could just be me). With ‘Ojneb’ the situation is slightly different, he knows the whole salvation spiel already. I met ‘Ojneb’ briefly when he attended the first Christian Union meeting last year, he never came back. As I have said in previous posts, it troubles me that students don’t come back to the CU, so one night after probably a few pints too many, I end up near interrogating poor ‘Ojneb’ as to why he doesn’t bother. Expecting the usual responses of “too busy”or “not my scene”, my jaw hit the floor when he told me he’d become an atheist.

I can just about handle trying to evangelise to be people who have never known God, but to someone who has known God and totally turned their back on him, I did not have a clue where to start. In all honesty I still don’t, but having opened this can of worms I won’t walk away until he finds God again. Yes Ojneb, you will find him again.