Evangelise.

The act of pushing one’s religion on another person – what a dirty sounding word. It’s a word that says, “Hey, did you know that you’ve got it all wrong? Your worldview is wrong. Your beliefs are wrong. Everything you know is wrong… and guess what? I’ve got it all right.”

For a while, this is how I thought of evangelism. A debate, a battle – no, a war between someone else’s heart and the truth I believed in. When I lost these wars, I felt frustrated. What did I do wrong? Was I too blunt? Too subtle? Too arrogant? For a long time, I prayed. I prayed for wisdom, to understand how to evangelise better.

And then one day, I realised: perhaps there is a better way to evangelise – one that doesn’t require words, because what you need aren’t arguments for a creator. Reasoning and unanswered questions, though perhaps important, aren’t the main forces holding you back.

No, instead of a confrontational opponent, you need a friend who will listen to you. You need someone who will support you through the hard times and who will rejoice with you throughout your successes. You need someone who cares for you – who genuinely cares for you, and who will love you in times other people will not.   

So, I need to rethink evangelism. I need to realise that my words won’t win you over. In fact, I need to accept that until you deny yourself and turn to God, you may not see my faith as anything but foolishness (1 Corinthians 1:18). I pray this time will come soon, friends. But in the meantime, I’ll try using my life, instead of my words, to be a testimony to you.

You can watch how I speak. I hope you will see someone who carefully uses his words to encourage and build people up according to their needs (Ephesians 4:29).

You can watch how I listen. I hope you will see someone who is quick to listen without judgement and who is slow to become angry (James 1:19-20).

You can watch how I work. I hope you will see someone who tirelessly works to do a job well, even in a place where we aren’t treated the way we should be (Colossians 3:23).

But most importantly, you can watch how I fail. Oh friends, you will see me fail in the most terrible and spectacular ways. But throughout these moments, I pray you’ll see where I turn. I hope you’ll see someone who is quick to acknowledge where they fall short and who turns to God to help them become someone better. And I hope when you see me in my better moments, you’ll see that everything good I have comes not from me, but from grace from the perfect God I serve.

Now friends, as I continue to evangelise, I won’t shower you with arguments or Bible verses to convince you of anything. Instead, I’ll try to live in a way that shows you why I live the way I do. Why I believe in a God who is loving and powerful in unimaginable ways. Why I believe there is a reason for the suffering and evil in the world. Why I believe life is beautiful, and so are you. And I pray that God will work in all of you, so that when you see my broken yet miraculous life, you might question my actions and begin exploring some of these incredulous ideas yourself.

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The piece above was inspired by an article I read here, which had a tremendous impact on me. After writing this, I was reminded of a verse which I thought fit in quite nicely with the overall theme.

And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

1 Corinthians 13:13 (NIV)