Everyone has an Adventure

Earlier this afternoon I took an opportunity to listen to an amazing story. My friend was raised in India and has a traditional Hindu family. I wouldn't do his testimony any justice retelling it, so I'd just like to share the aspects that I think were the most applicable to my own life.

Having been raised in a Christian home all my life and being taught the basics of Christianity since I can remember, I often think of my own personal testimony as "boring" and somewhat run-of-the-mill. Although that's obviously far from the truth because as a youth minister once told me, "every testimony is an awesome story of how God saved a life." My friend has one of the most inspiring stories I've heard in a while.

His story starts with a small group of people who really went out of their way to show him God's love. This is often the part of evangelism that gets lost on a lot of Christians, especially street preachers. They forget that in order to effectively show the true gospel, you must first show Christ's love, especially when sharing with those who have come from other cultures. He put it this way, "The message of the gospel is so radical because when you tell a person who believes in anything else that 'no one comes to the Father except through me' you're pretty much telling them that everything they have believed all their life is wrong." That is a huge bomb to drop and should not be taken lightly. If you tell someone who is not quite ready to hear that, your opportunities to speak again might be harmed in the future.

The other compelling aspect of his story was how understanding and loving his parents have been through the whole process. As I said earlier, his parents are Hindu, but have not discouraged him from reading and learning about Christianity. They have, however, informed him that if he came home and told them he had become a Christian it would be a bad situation. Despite this, he knows his parents were fantastic models as a child. No matter what happens or what he decides he will always be welcome in his own home.

As I said earlier, I could never do justice to the great story he shared with me and a handful of others, but it inspired me to take pride in my own personal redemption story and to love others a lot more than I do.