Little League training and God (Part 2)

As I was saying in my last post, I spent this past weekend in Kutno at Little League training. On the road and while there Jack and I talked a lot about church...about the things I've written about here...as well as about our image as evangelicals to the Poles we work amongst. Sometimes a question as simple as "Why are you in Poland?" can be hard to answer because you don't want to scare people off immediately by saying "well, I'm a Baptist missionary who has come to introduce the real Gospel to all of you blind, deceived people who seem to have religion on Sundays but live like heathens the rest of the week." You know, that just wouldn't fly too well here!

At the same time, I am who I am...a follower of Christ. I can't and don't want to hide that fact. I, out of curiosity, asked Jack what he told people when they asked that question. He just tells them he's an evangelical pastor, thinking that Poles need to see good examples of evangelicals...not just the crusaders, the tele-evangelists, the freakish sects, etc. I thought that was a good idea -- simple enough.

Well my opportunity came to answer the question with a couple of guys during one of our breaks. I gave them Jack's answer (I preach here...so I'm sort of a pastor, right??). Let me just tell you that through being honest, open, and unashamed of my identity (more so in Christ than as a "pastor") some really incredible conversations took place. Not only during that break but later that night over dinner we got to speak to these same guys about our faith...about the opportunity to have their relationship with God restored...about the opportunity to experience Life as God had intended it for them since the creation of the world...etc. It was really awesome!

I'm telling you this because sometimes I'm afraid to just put it out there when people ask. But I think when I do that I'm missing opportunities to share the most important thing in my life with them...something that could really change their world forever. Don't hear me wrong...I'm not talking about blasting them with some fanatical rant. I'm talking about just being normal...just talking about what God means in my life...just talking about everything, acknowledging that they do in fact have a right to believe what they want (God gives them that right but sometimes man doesn't) all the while speaking about how God has worked in my life and how the option is there for them to experience that with Him too.

God astounds me. He really astounds me. I just shake my head in amazement when I think about how He uses things like Little League training to teach me things about Him as well as giving such incredible opportunities to share Him with others. When I open my life up to Him I am constantly amazed at what He does in and through me...not because of who I am, but in spite of who I am!