Critically Christian

So I was sitting inside my Philosophy 76 class, Critical Thinking, like normal. We were covering whatever chapter we were on and had to explain a section of it as a group. I have been in the group that I am in since the class started and I have built up a relationship with these guys for the past 6 or so weeks.

In this particular class we have had group discussions and class discussions about various topics including the war in Iraq, affirmative action, politics, etc. As a side note, I haven't been super outspoken about being a Christian to them. I haven't shoved it in their face and I haven't tried to attack their worldviews and so on. I have mentioned that I was a Christian, but they must have missed it. Then the topic for group discussion today came up and it was: Religion in school.

The three other guys in the group began yapping about everything you can think of. They gave their own experiences with various religions and gave their arguments. One of them justified their actions by saying they believe but they don't practice it that much, that he only attends church every now and then. They said things like, "one should try all different religions to be sure, even Satanism." Weird. Each of them pretty much made the case that religion is a bad thing. The person next to me told the group how he has had very bad experiences with Christians who condemn homosexuality and himself (who revealed himself to be a homosexual. I knew it.) He even mentioned the Christian group at our school (Christians @ Chaffey College) that I attend and how that group somehow is bad as well.

I sat and listened to this banter from a Catholic Satanist/Hedonist, Mormon(alleged) and a homosexual for about 6-8 minutes. During their discussions the Holy Spirit was ministering to me that now was the time to share with them. So after they all took a breath, I jumped in and took my chance by saying, "I'm a committed Christian, I attend church about 3 times a week and I go to the Christians @ Chaffey College club."

Every argument they made was almost exactly the opposite of me and everything I stand for. But I said my above statement with love and had my entire behavior from the past 6 or so weeks to back up my claim. Immediately they started excusing my claim by saying, "Oh but you're different," or "You're cool you don't condemn us like that." My behavior demonstrated a Christian behavior they had not encountered before.

Now I can sit here and reflect on how bad it is that they haven't had such an encounter before, or I can Praise Adonai for the example I was able to be. They had not experienced before the love I was able to show them throughout the earlier part of the class. By the grace of God, I was able to associate the love that I have been showing them with the love that Christ had shown me on the cross. I just pray that throughout the next coming weeks I can live up to what God has called me to do and continue to be faithful to share God's love and truth with them.