Wooden Beams

While I was away I got a call from a friend asking if I would give a talk on Christian Living to some college students on a retreat in November. I told him I would, but I am a little apprehensive about it because it is a difficult subject to present. As a concept, Christian living is rather straight forward. Afterall, one of the first things the majority of parents instill in their children is a sense of Christian values. It's not exactly rocket science. But I think presenting it may be difficult. We live in this silly relativistic culture where people have their own sense of what's right and they do not like being told otherwise, especially by someone who is clearly no better if not worse than they are. So in order to reach these students, I think a great deal of sensitivity is needed. Which makes my friend an idiot for asking me to give this speech.

A part or me is also on the fence simply because I do not want to be hypocritical and know good and well I'm no saint. But maybe that can help me give plenty of examples of how not to be a Christian. For example, say I'm getting ready to go with someone to the ocean. And let's pretend this person I'm going with just got a new swimsuit because this person lost a lot weight after a good deal of hard work. It would be rather un-Christian of me to point out the stretch marks that show while this person is wearing the swimsuit and thereby reduce that person to tears.

Nevertheless, I'm fairly excited about the speech because I have some ideas about how to present the material that I haven't tried before in front of an audience. But it will be challenging. Because it's a speech and not a conversation everything is a one-way street. Which is fine since I'm sensational, because no one else will have anything of more value to say on the matter than what I've already said, but the problem is that there is no room for questions. So the way I see it, I need to try and make my points so obviously clear that there is little need for questions or rebukes. Like I can't just say, going out to purposely get drunk is a sin, and leave it at that. Instead I need to explain clearly why this is not a good thing to do and the damage it causes.

Then there's the problem of me. People may retort that I'm no saint myself so I shouldn't tell them what to do. The purpose of the speech is to inform people of what it means to be a Christian but it may be hard to find any listeners if they do not think I'm a good one to begin with. I hate that mindset, even though I find myself falling into it as well. It doesn't hold. For example maybe our high school teachers cannot derive everything mathematical proof they present to us. But that doesn't make the proof any less true just because they can't follow it themselves. Or the opposite can also happen. People may think I am being judgemental about them, or I have some 'holier-than-thou' attitude. This is actually fairly common and I've never understood it.

I'm thinking about posting the speech once I get it done, but that will be sometime in November. In the meantime keep in me your prayers so that I can say something that does touch these students in a meaningful way.