Evangelism.

A Christian co-worker of mine spoke a very intuitive analogy today. She was talking about her son, and how his girlfriend was not a good influence on him and the decisions he was making. She said "it's just like a person that is drowing-- when you swim out to save them, they grab on tight, panicking, flailing, making the situation worse. Then before you know it, you're drowing right along with them". I praised this woman for such a thought, and dwelled on it myself. So often, we as Christian swim out to save those in the secular world, but we often end up following the sins of the world instead of pulling them back out of the murky water. How can we avoid this? Well for one, of coarse, reading God's word directly. The Bible is like the blueprint of life, the life that we are ALL supposed to be living. And so long as we obey God's word and honor him with everything we do, we will stay straight on that path to righteousness and save others in the process. Secondly, I've noticed throughout my life that the harder I try to persuade other to Christ, the easier I fall. Not to say that verbally spreading Jesus's word isn't the best avenue to explore, not at all, but that sometimes a person is more suseptible to SEE God's word in action, rather than to hear someone preach it to them. That's why I try my hardest to resemble my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and have our awesome God speak through my actions, prompting people's heart to yearn for more. My mother used to tell me that no matter how hard I tried to help her get closer to God, the more it pushed her away, and it never really clicked until she started paying attention to my Christ-like behavior and finally realizing that she wanted what was making her daughter so happy-- the salvation of Christ. I know there are times that we as Christian just want to shout of God's grace from the rooftops above, but we also have to practice the virtue of patience, another one of God's gifts. By acting in a Christ-like manner throughout a span of years, who knows who has been watching you all this time. Who knows who thought to themselves "I want what he/she's got." Who knows how many blessings you might have been a part of. So that's what went through my mind when my co-worker said what she did. We as Christian's CAN'T drown with others in the secular world, but are called to be their safety raft, their life jacket. We need to be patient, and wait for God's word to speak THROUGH us, and be whole in Christ's image no matter where we go. After all, you never know who's watching.... ;-)