***this post is unrelated to the previous post, which Cool Dad will explain later***
A wild (to us) idea came to me a few years ago. When I told Cool Dad, he was not jumping for joy, to say the least. He thought it was weird and wanted to know “why on earth” and “what would this accomplish.” My idea: to start visiting our local atheist/humanist society meetings.
CD thought for sure we would just be crashing their party. Why would they want a couple of boring, low-biblical-knowledge Christians tainting their meetings?
God put in me a desire to really listen to understand where people were coming from and maybe just have one tiny opportunity to show some love. To show that they matter to me and that I want to know what they think. Both non-Christian and Christian friends insinuated that I was going there to “convert” people. I could honestly say no. The focus was love and understanding where they were coming from (at that point I began putting flowers in my hair and wearing large peace signs at all times).
So, CD came around to the idea and he was glad he did. We went to the monthly meetings for about a year, until Cool Baby was born. It was thrilling, challenging, and just plain fun. I had to rely on God so much, and face my own doubts, that it ironically helped me grow stronger in my faith.
I genuinely miss those meetings and the people we got to know. I often wonder if my declining spiritual life after Cool Baby’s birth was partly due to missing out on those types of opportunities because of “common sense” and “now-that-I-have-a-baby” excuses. Here are two silly but memorable scenes God brought to my mind this morning, perhaps to inspire me to take more risks to love people and go with ideas He gives me to do this.
The coming-out party
Before the first meeting, I had envisioned a large classroom full of people, a podium up front, and the two of us undercover Christians sitting silently at the back. Instead, desks were arranged in a small circle for discussion with the other eight people in attendance. No hiding. At all.
We realized one of the older men was a Christian when suddenly the conversation centered around most of the people disagreeing with him. At the pinnacle of the argument, one of the society members dramatically said, “Well, we are all atheists here, and we think that…”
And up went our timid hands. The mysterious newcomers. “Actually, we are both Christians too…” Everyone looked at each other, surprised and not sure what to do next.
The perfect one-liner
As we went to more meetings, we became more involved in the conversations. God opened so many doors for us, giving us words to say when we didn’t plan to say anything at all. We got to ask insane amounts of questions (which we love to do), and answer questions as well. Everyone was extremely welcoming. Amazingly, and only by the grace of God, He kept us from ever turning anything into an argument. Rather, He showed us how to diffuse arguments and cover words in love.
At one point we may have raised our voices slightly though. We had been trying to explain how we believe that God pursues each person out of love for them. I compared it to the way a man pursues a woman that he loves and wants to be with. One of the most biblically-knowledgeable members there began sharing that if that were the case, he felt like a neglected housewife. “If God would just come down in person, and show…”
“HE DID!!!!” Cool Dad and I may have shouted in unison, then smiled to ourselves at the sweetness and perfect timing of that joke.
“I totally set myself up for that,” laughed the member, shaking his head.
That’s awesome. You know what’s funny…Today some atheists who sit next to me in chemistry were talking about the Da Vinci Code and how they didn’t believe the Bible. At first I let them have their conversation, but after they were saying all this crap that is so not true I told them that I believe the Bible. One girl was like, “Dang, we picked the wrong place to have this conversation.” But it went pretty great. They actually admired my extreme faith in something they don’t even believe in. They were interested when I explained some evidence that further proves why the Bible is true, I answered some questions about Mary Magedelene, and they really seemed to consider what I was saying instead of just thinking I’m crazy. I also explained to them that I’m not about pointing fingers, just about trying to love people the best I can, something else they liked. It was a great reminder that if you are strong in my faith, people will listen and respect you if you listen and respect them as well. And talking about the Bible is always fun. It felt good.
However, I have a feeling I might have been a little TOO passive…I think I was too “This is what I think is true” instead of more “This is what I know is true”. Hopefully a similar conversation will happen again. I think these girls just need to know more about what the Bible really says.
This is so inspiring! I find it funny that atheists have meetings. I would have a ton of questions for them, too!
Raq – good work! You’ll find that the more of these conversations you start having, the more people will come to you with their questions. They’ll learn to trust you to have an open and honest discussion with them, without the judgment they’re probably expecting. And then you can invite them to First Priority! :O)
Wow! I give you guys +10 cool points for that!! (And cool points to Raq, too, I say!)
How interesting that atheists have meetings…I’ve never heard of such a thing and would never have known to look for a group like this. How did you hear about it?
some of my closest friends are atheists. i love that they are not afraid to ask questions. i love that we have come to a place where we can discuss and neither person gets offended.
i think its funny that these atheists you wrote about had a group. isnt that like church?
well…hats off to you guys! i think that is awesome!
do you miss it?
Raq–no way! what a cool opportunity! go raquel!
Amy and Mary–i did a search online, maybe also using the closely-related term “humanist” and found their website. it said that all were welcome to attend. and interestingly, the discussions at the meetings are frequently related to the church and Christianity.
Tam–yes, i do miss it! it sounds weird, but i crave having friends that will come up to me and say, “Why the heck do you believe that crap about xyz?” and still be friends in spite of it. because really, who else will do it? american christianity makes me feel like a couch potato. i think there is a lot we could learn from hanging out with atheists and others who believe differently from us. i’ve actually looked for atheist mom groups online, but to no avail. and i imagine that a group started by a christian wouldn’t be so successful!
“HE DID!!” That’s awesome
annie – it was the perfect setup. i’m smiling right now thinking of that night.