I'm not leaving without you, Sam!

It seemed like an emotional-Frodo line. Pretty sure that isn't one of the lines from Lord of the Rings, but you know.
Moving on!

Was in Bible study the other day, and were watching a video by this pastor, talking about this friend of his. And he mentioned that one time he had said to him, "I'm not going to heaven without you." And this really hit his friend quite solidly, it was a comment that affected him quite a bit. As an aside, this wasn't a random comment said with no previous spiritual/theological conversation - they'd been friends for many years, and he'd gradually warmed to him over that time.

But I suppose it's a phrase that resonated with me, as well. Because I certainly know some good friends of mine that I'd hate going to heaven without. You know, I'd love to see them as Christians - I know some amazing people, and it blows my mind to think how amazing they could be if they were serving the Lord; how much of a blessing they would be to his Kingdom.

But, you know. With the way this world goes. Chances are, a lot of them won't become Christians. And that won't make me any less their friend, heck no. I'm not like that, not in a million years. It's not me.

And, you know, I've never been great at evangelising. In any sense, really - whether it's a theological discussion, doing walk-up at campus with the uni group, manning the CBM stall, or just talking to my friends about Jesus - I'm not exactly the best. In discussions, most of my opinions are copy-and-paste from other people; in walk-up, I tend to be fairly withdrawn, and similarly at stalls; and I've essentially never talked to a friend about Jesus. Well, I've never broached the topic myself. There's a couple of times people have asked me about it in passing, but I've tended to not really touch on it much.

And, you know, not all those types of evangelising are necessarily the best option. It should just be about being a friend to someone - being real with them. And part of that is being real about who you are, as a Christian. It's not about answering a million questions, or presenting what Christianity is in four dot points. It's about living. Relationships. Stories.

And I suppose, I'm not so great at that, either. I want to be. But, as I tend to rant on frequently, I'm not so good at communication, my social skills aren't great, etc etc. I don't really know many people's stories. At all. Even people I would call very good friends - I don't necessarily know a heck of a lot about them, or what their life's been like. And that saddens me somewhat, I think. Because I'd like to know. I love a good story. Ripe with all the details. You know, from things like what their favourite colour is, to things like why they aren't interested in God. Or whatever.

But yeah. Looks like I've strayed a bit from my original idea. Oh well.