Friends with the World

There is a profound lesson in life. It is one that we all must learn in time, and those of us that seek based on a true and humble persuit of knowledge will find. I believe I know this not on an extrinsic source of knowledge, thought I could pull multiple sources and produce many quotes on the subject, but because In my own internal workings I have come to certain conclusions. Why then, do I stand to learn the most from people that are different than me? Lately I have had a fascination with non-christian thought. Lets run through alittle history for those of you that do not know me, which, I would say is most people. Even those that spend a good amount of time with me only get a glimpse of who I am, and this is simply because I love to listen! And when I do talk, its generally casual conversation. I grew up as a Christian, but It was a casual relationship with the lifestyle and not something of the heart and mind. Later in life I forged my own direction in thought. I loved entertaining new ideas and became fascinated with knowledge. My mindset was one of persuit, and I would seek to find loftier and loftier ideals in order to become a man of wisdom. I delved into naturalism, athiesm, new-age religions. I persued Christian science for awhile there, which is quite a fascinating interpretation of what it meens to be a Christian. I would have to say that Christian science stuck for a good while, because I absolutely loved to idea of being able to create my own reality based on my perception and thought-systems. I was a master of philosopy in my own mind at that point in my life, and truly I say to you, that most of my friends would be ill to debate me on any sort of argument about truth, because I do believe I instilled a sense of fear in those I knew best. They were reluctant to go to a subject on the nature of reality because I would take the conversation uncomfortably deep. It was who I was at the time, nothing more, nothing less. Though a series of events, I was humbled by God. This, I mark as the beginning of my true persuit of knowledge. You see, I do believe that we can come from one of two places when looking for knowledge. I am not going to define either, but only say that in my opinion only one will lead us to true truth. The other will become a manifestation of our own desires and a projection of who we are onto the world we see. I said all of that, to say this. I am absolutely in love with the minds of agnostics, and with athiest. I am incredibly curious about the mindset of people that hate christ. I find myself longing for long conversations with people that believe Jesus Christ is foolishness. I find myself seeking to talk with people that believe things foreign to who I am.....its never been like that before. In my old persuit of knowledge I longed to talk to those most like me, because I believed I stood to gain the most knowledge from them. In truth I believe I was simply seeking to reinforce my faulty definitions of truth. Now its the complete opposite, dont get me wrong, I love talking to my Christian friends, and I love being counseled by my Christian elders, and oftentimes have lofty questions that I ask them, but my passion is to know people that dont believe in Jesus, who he was, what he offers, and who just have different viewpoints in general. To take it a step farther towards complete honestly, I will also tell you all that I dont even neccesarily like telling them I am a Christian right off the bat, because I find they alter what comes out of their mouth given such facts about me. I want them to think that I stand in the place of nuetrality to having a worldview. I want them to think that I dont have an objective absolute truth I hold onto. I want them to think I am a seeker, and nothing more. I don't want them to think I am there to impose my view onto them, I dont want them to think that I am there for any other reason then to simply inquire into their minds in a complete and innocent curiosity. And the truth is that is where I stand. Ok, Ok....some might think (Wow, he doesnt have a heart for lost people). I certainly hope not! I do have a heart for "lost" people, but what I dont have a heart for is force-feeding them popular christian buzz phrases. Truth be told I want to know them. Truth be told I want to know who they are, and why they think they the way they do, if for nothing more than curiosity. I am not afraid of what I will hear, because I believe at this point I am rooted in a truth that cannot be stolen by any amount of knowledge. The truth that lives in me is a living and a growing Truth. Therefore, my only objective is curiousity and relationship to the world and its people, and in that I have to believe God can work. If however I become obsessed with manifesting that work through my own desire to convert a non-christian to a believer...well then for me, I think I have missed the very thing that would make that possible, and that is a simple and pure desire to know that person, and who they are, and why they are that way. If in that process they want to know about me, then I would love to tell them! Thats the beauty of a relationship. Thats the wonder! Being rooted in basic true truth, we as Christians should be genuinely curious to learn all that we can about the secular world. We should be genuinely and innocently curious to know the mindsets of those that see things different then us. And now I've claimed it! That is how I will live from now on out. I do not seek to build relationships to evangelize! I build relationships to build relationships, and if in that God gives me the opportunity to share the Truth I know, than I will do it with joyful lips, I will do it with a humble heart, I will do it with a faithful mind, I will present the truth of the Gospel in a coherent way, and I will do it with a true confidence that can surly only arrise being rooted in the truth of everthing, whos name is Christ. And, given that I know who I am talking to, I dare say that I can present it in the perfect way that relates to their world. That last sentence is awesomely ironic, in a way that "relates" to their world. Funny, I always thought it was about a relationship.