QUESTION: When Was The Last Time You Had To Explain What You Believe To Someone?

Question(s) for you:

When was the last time you had to explain what you believe to someone? Who was it and how did it come up? How did it go?

I’ve heard it many times over:

Religion (or beliefs) are personal–they’re not something you should talk about. You should keep that part of your life to yourself.

Do you agree? I understand why people say it. Either they:

1. Don’t want to go through the discomfort of trying to formulate words that make sense based on their beliefs.
2. Don’t want to go through the effort that figuring this all out takes (and then go through #1 also).
3. Don’t want to do the above two and then deal with the reaction of what someone might say.
4. Don’t want to be challenged on what they do (or don’t) believe.
5. Don’t want to change how they’re living if they start thinking about what they believe and start believing something different (or actually start to believe at all).

Over the years, I have explained what I believe (the whole God and Jesus thing…) many times over. It doesn’t matter what you believe, it’s something we should all think about and do from time-to-time. Why?

Because you should be sure of what you hold true. It is this deeper philosophy about life and origins that will shape how you live.

There is a follow-up question to this:

Does the thought of explaining what you believe excite you or terrify you?

This is also something we should all think about. And we shouldn’t be scared to talk about what we believe, or keep it to ourselves.

First, because these are the most interesting conversations in life.

Second, as a Christian, Jesus told us (as followers of him) to talk about him with others.

We just need to figure out how to do it in a way that is respectful and relevant. So standing on a soap-box on a street corner yelling about the “FIRES OF HELL!” probably isn’t the best approach. Over coffee after lunch might be better.

So figure out what you believe, down to the foundations.

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