a word on my jumbled words

I've had some of the most beautifully challenging conversations over dinner tables, coffee cups, and office desks. Here is a small sampling of some of the conversation topics and questions the lovely people of Vancouver/Portland have brought to the dinner table:

"How can you believe in God when there is so much evil in this world?"

A very brave soul asked me this whopper:
"Are you dating anyone?"
(Wife in the background: HONEY! You barely know her don't ask her that!)


"Why do want to date/marry someone who shares your faith? Would you date/marry someone who supports your spirituality, but doesn't believe?"

"So since you are a Nursing major, what about science? Do your studies in biology and chemistry ever make you doubt your faith? Don't they eventually disprove it?"

"The CRC? What the heck is that?" (I got a great giggle out of this one...TULIP anyone?)

"Why do we have to label ourselves 'Christians?' Why can't we just say we follow the LORD and leave it at that? That we believe in God? Why does it have to be labelled, a group, an identity?"

"The church is just a place for people to connect with other like-minded people and get to know each other. I don't think it's that important."

Let me tell you, my responses (or lack there of) were anything but articulate. I couldn't use the CRC lingo I am used to using, and didn't have a common vocabulary to refer to. It was difficult even to use basic theology because that in itself is complex and takes time to learn. But my responses were raw, I asked a lot of questions in return, and often left space for silence (all my Nursing friends are laughing at me right now...therapeutic communication is a life skill, ya'll). Thankfully, I was fresh out of several hours worth of conversations with my pastor Brad, shadowing several chaplains, chatting with several new Christians, and reading Tim Keller's The Reason for God. 

After many of these conversations, I came home feeling like a total doofus. What in the world did I even say? Or not say? Did I just confuse them even more? (I honestly think I confused myself even more most of the time...) Did I mess up an opportunity for them to know Christ? To hear the gospel?

And then I opened to this passage from 2 Corinthians 2:14-17 & 3:1-6:

"14 But thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession, and through us spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of him everywhere. 15 For we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing, 16 to one a fragrance from death to death, to the other a fragrance from life to life. Who is sufficient for these things? 17 For we are not, like so many, peddlers of God's word, but as men of sincerity, as commissioned by God, in the sight of God we speak in Christ...Such is the confidence that we have through Christ toward God. 5 Not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything as coming from us, but our sufficiency is from God, 6 who has made us sufficient to be ministers of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit."

Thanks be to God, who can use inarticulate doofuses like me, jumbled words and all, to spread His fragrance.

So next time you have the opportunity to have a conversation like mine, remember 2 Corinthians 2 and 3. And remember it is completely ok to say "That is a great question, I will look into it." (Thanks, Brad). Also, thank the people you have conversation with for being brave enough to ask these questions. Encourage them to ask other Christians "Why are you a Christian? Why do you even go to church?" Small seeds my friends, small seeds. What I learned: those "seeds" are not only planted in those you converse with, but often even more so, they are planted deep in yourself. They lead you to examine your own roots, awakening a new hunger for the Word, for knowledge of Him, for time spent with Him, the Maker of the Seeds.

And the fragrance of the knowledge of Him everywhere sure smells glorious. Have you caught a whiff lately?