"How many people should I tell about God and His word?"
"Everyone you know, and everyone you'll ever meet."
"Okay... but how do I do that?"
"Well, you start by building relationships with people."
"How?"
"Do you know how to be a good friend?"
"Yeah."
"Okay, well, it's like that, only it's more than just hanging out. The point is to get to know them, and help them get to know Jesus, and then to help them become more like Him."
"But I don't know where to start."
"Neither do I, bud, but I am learning, and I will help you to learn with me. One thing that we can both do is pray for God to send us someone to be friends with and talk to about Him."
The above conversation is a series of text messages between a seventh-grader and his youth minister. It's one of those once-in-a-lifetime conversations, a question out of the blue, from a kid who really wants to know--Just how many people should I tell about Jesus, and how do I go about it? I was laughing for joy as I read these messages, and wracking my brain for a way to help the minister answer his poignant questions.
Watching and helping a group of middle and high school students learn about the life of Christ has been an extremely powerful and rewarding experience. I have watched them learn that Jesus didn't come to be popular or powerful, that He hung around with people most Christians wouldn't be caught dead with, and that He called ordinary people like you and me to follow Him, and to do even greater things than He did. In other words, these kids have been learning that being a Christian means being like Jesus, and being like Jesus doesn't mean behaving yourself and going to church on Sunday mornings. They're learning that Jesus was completely radical... and they're beginning to want to be just like Him.
I love watching people, especially young people, grow in their knowledge of the truth. Truth changes people, and I can see Jesus--the Way, the Truth, and the Life--working in this young man's heart to change him and transform him into the likeness of Christ. This kid has learned the truth, and now he wants to learn how to walk in it. I want to help teach him, and I hope I get to see the results; I have no greater joy than to see a young person walking in the truth.
God is awesome.
