As I’ve been reading through some of the stories of the authors this week, there was one that kind of jumped out at me.
Mark Mittelberg was talking about a time when he was living in Chicago going to school. He’d just been reading some thick stuff from Kant and he and some friends were out at a pizza place. The waiter asked him, “Do you have questions about anything”. Mark could tell the guy was looking for an opportunity to relax for a minute and just talk.
Crazy ideas started racing through Mark’s head of how he could get cute and throw a quote out from Kant and see how the waiter would react. Part of him was also saying, “don’t take a chance, just talk to the guy about pizza”. But Mark decided to trust the Holy Spirit and his own quirky personality. He threw out a quote and the waiter was actually interested. They talked about science and faith and Mark even sent him some books on the subject.
Do you trust the Holy Spirit to use your own personality as you talk to others about Jesus? I think oftentimes we assume that we should share Jesus like some model we’ve seen before. We should be a little Billy Graham. We should argue apologetics all the time. Or maybe something else.
But remember, God’s given you a unique personality and he wants you to use it.
I remember the last time I was on a plane flying home- I spent most of the trip reading a book on Luther. Oftentimes planes are a great place to share about faith, but this time my immediate neighbors were sleeping and I’m not one to push on that issue. I decided God was calling me to read up. So I did.
But then as the plane was descending a rather talkative guy across the aisle from me looked over and said, “hey what’s that you’ve been reading this whole time”. This was an opportunity, and one that fit well within my personality. I like talking about books. So I started talking with him about the book, about history, and Luther.
He kind of slanted back towards his own life and misadventures, but also interest in faith. I made the transition and stayed with him. I’m also a person who really believes prayer is a powerful thing. So when we got off the plane, I kept talking to him until I could get him aside and right then and there, we prayed. We’ve corresponded some in letters since then, and based on those I’d say he’s been making some big changes in life.
The key- let the Holy Spirit use your personality. I like books. I like prayer. I like a lot of things. You do too, so look to see how those can be avenues to sharing the faith.
