Fighting Fear

I don't really like rejection. I guess that's probably a universal feeling; no one really likes being told no, and it's even worse when it's personal. When I ask people for an interview and they say no, it doesn't really bother me all that much. I know most of the time it's because either they don't have time or they don't want to be on television or, sometimes, they're just trying to hide something. But more often than not, it has nothing to do with me. I'm not exactly Mike Wallace. People aren't running in fear from me as interviewer.

But when it's personal, it's really hard. When I was single, it took a lot for me to work up the courage to ask a girl out. I had to be pretty darn sure they'd say yes before I'd actually ask them. I rarely got a no, because I rarely went out on a limb. My wife is one of the few people who actually turned me down when I asked her out; I was so intimidated from then on out, it took her kissing me a year later to make me willing to ask her again.

But I digress. I think a lot of people don't like being rejected, and I think that's the main reason a lot of us are not the kind of evangelists we ought to be. I believe the Gospel message as much as anyone. I understand it's ability to change hearts and minds and make people lovers of God rather than lovers of everything else. But working up the courage to share what I believe is hard. I know that many of the people around me don't really want to hear it, and chances are, a good number of them are going to reject it, no matter how many times I share it. And those rejections don't feel like a rejection of Christ as much as they feel like a rejection of me. Mind you, I'm not saying this is a good or healthy attitude. I realize it's sinful pride that cares more about what people think about me than what God wants me to do. I'm just saying it's how I feel.

So how do we overcome these fears? I think the only thing is to fall so in love with Jesus, to become so enamoured with the work he did on the Cross, to be so full of the Spirit, that we can't help but share it. The Spirit can overcome all of those mental and emotional barriers that we put in the way of evangelism.

Where My Blog Name Came From

Let me just say upfront that I'm no evangelist. As much as I believe the Gospel, the Good News of Jesus, I'm not very good at sharing it. I'm theoretically on fire for the Lord; I love to think about Him and study His Word, and even teach those in my Sunday School class. But when it comes down to brass tacks, to sharing the gospel with the dying around me, I'm frankly terrible about it, even among those who I know both need it and might be open to it. It's something I desperately need to work on, but I'm quite honestly just not there yet. I'm uncomfortable with some of the methods that I've been taught; they seem formulaic and simplistic. But I haven't found a better way to do it, either.

Here's another problem: I have a natural inclination for sarcasm. That sometimes makes my sincerity suspect, even among those who know me best, even when I'm trying my best to be sincere. I know I have no one to blame but myself for that, though.

I said all of that to say this: I want people to come to Jesus, to get saved and have eternal life and feel the joy that comes from having relationship with God. I want people to know what it feels like to go from being God's enemy to being his friend. Even as I try to figure out how to be a better evangelist, I have a desire to see people coming to know God. That's why I named this blog "A Good Infection."

Anyone who's read much C.S. Lewis probably knows this phrase. He coined it in "Mere Christianity," to explain how the faith is spread from one person to another. It has proven to be quite infectious over the centuries, you know. So my journey right now is to try to figure out how to best spread it in a society that is all too often hostile to it. That will probably be one of the more prominent things I'll be discussing on this blog in coming days. Any ideas are appreciated.