Interesting People

About a year ago, I started going to the local health club twice a week. And during that time, I learned a very important lesson. There are two places in the world where you should never, never, initiate a conversation with your fellow man, no matter how friendly you might wish to be: the Department of Motor Vehicles, and the health club locker room.

Now the DMV is a given -- everyone already knows what kind of crazy people live there. But never having been to the health club, I naively thought that it was possible to have a nice, friendly conversation. After many strange (one-sided) discussions involving: alien abductions, the inevitable Communist takeover of the United States, and the general unfairness of life, I decided to simply ignore everyone. The last straw was one poor guy who just wanted to tell his life story to someone... anyone! As it turns out, he was feeling depressed because some woman he barely knew filed for a restraining order against him. I told him, "Life really is unfair," and beat a hasty retreat.

Today, I accidentally spoke to someone. As I was just heading out of the locker room to begin my workout, a guy came in wearing a shirt which read (in HUGE letters), "Body Piercing saved my life!" My curiosity got the better of me, so I asked, pointing at his shirt, "How did that happen?" He said, "You need to read the back for it to make sense." On the back of his shirt was a picture of Jesus' nail-pierced hands.

Now, since I'm a believer, I thought that was a really creative shirt, and told him so. Unfortunately, like a good evangelist, he began to quote Scripture at me, attempting to convince me of my need for a Savior. I tried several different times to let him know that I was already a believer, but I think he was on auto-pilot.

First I tried the old standby of finishing the Bible quotes that he'd begin. So when he'd say, "The Bible says that 'He was wounded for our transgressions...'," I'd chime in with, "'... and bruised for our iniquities.'" Nope. He kept going.

So I told him, straight up, that I was a believer. No dice. I let him walk me through the four Spiritual Laws, proclaiming my assent to each point. No good.

By now, he was truly launched and well away. I started throwing the occasional "Amen" and "Yes Lord" into the conversation, thinking that some charismatic display was called for. Not good enough. I eventually escaped only by sticking my headphones on and shouting, "Well, I've had a wonderful chat with you, but I've gotta get to my workout now. See ya!"

Now I've gotta hand it to the guy. He was more bold with his faith than most people who call themselves Christian (including me). He seemed very concerned that I understood my need for a Savior. A bit over-zealous, obviously, but his heart was in the right place, and I admire him for that. So even though I can laugh at the experience, I wonder if he didn't have something to teach me about my own faith. Am I bold enough to present Christ to a stranger, just in casual conversation? All too often, I'm not. Maybe this was God's way of nudging me in the right direction. Tact definitely plays a part, but Christ still calls us to share our faith, wherever we are.