#19 - Share my faith with a stranger

This proved to be a much more challenging goal than I would have ever imagined.  I purposefully looked for ways to share my faith with strangers over the last 3 years, but it's hard when I live in a little {mostly} Christian, stay-at-home-mom bubble!  I don't get out much, unless I attempt to talk to a stranger at the car wash or the gym.  And what am I going to say, "Can I tell you why I love Jesus?"

Talk about scaring someone off!

I almost shared my faith with my cashier at Trader Joe's last year.  The quick conversation set it up perfectly, but I chickened out.  Once I was back in my car, I realized that if I hadn't chickened out, what would have made that cashier receptive to hearing about my faith after only meeting me 5 minutes earlier?

That was when I decided that I would redefine "stranger."  I don't think many people are open to hearing anything from a perfect stranger.  And if they are open, they usually just nod and smile and think, "How nice for them that they feel that way." 

My new definition of "stranger" transformed into someone that I would meet from that point forward.  Before sharing something so personal, like my faith journey, I decided it was best to have a foundation of trust in a relationship first.

But the fact remained: I didn't meet many new people.  Pre-school was about the only place I could think of where I would meet other moms, but that wasn't on my mind as I chatted with the moms at drop off and pick up each week.  Soon, weeks turned into months and I quickly forgot about looking for opportunities to share my faith and hope in Jesus Christ. 

Then Tastefully Simple came into my life.  Do you have any idea how many HUNDREDS of people I've met because of this business?  My sphere of influence has definitely broadened, that's for sure!

One day this summer, after praying for God to open a door for a conversation, it happened.  One of my hostesses had to cancel her party because she was diagnosed with breast cancer.  When I went to her house to collect the party food kit, we started talking.  She remembered when I asked how I could pray for her and she began sharing how she started reading her Bible since the diagnosis.  She stopped going to church years ago and suddenly found a need for God in her life again.

Let me set up the scene for you: we were standing at her front door while chatting and my van was parked and running on the curb by her driveway.  Her street was being re-paved and only one lane was usable.  Can you picture it?

AS I OPENED MY MOUTH to share my story, we heard a loud honk.  A truck, pulling a huge trailer, was trying to get around my van and couldn't proceed unless I moved my vehicle.  Within a split second the conversation was over.

Looking back, I think God was testing me.  Testing to see if I was really ready to do it.  Knowing how often I've chickened out in the past, not wanting to seem pushy, not wanting to intrude my beliefs on someone else, not wanting to appear judgmental, not knowing if I would have the answers to their potentially skeptical questions.  But I wasn't afraid anymore!  And for some reason, that was not the time or the place that God wanted me to share my faith.

My time did finally come, quite recently actually.  But I'm not going to be specific about the situation because so many circles of friends, Tastefully Simple clients and now my Tastefully Simple team read my blog. And many of the people in those groups seem to be inter-woven. 

But I was proud of the conversation.  I hope the girl I spoke with was receptive, although she seems very, very far from being at a place in her life where she would accept my faith as her own.  Thankfully, that's not my goal.  My purpose was not to convert a stranger to fall in love with Jesus, my purpose was simply sharing my story to plant a seed, then let God take it from there, using me only as He saw fit.  The cool thing is that I will continue to have plenty of opportunities to meet with this person, so this might not be the end of this story!

In addition to this incredible conversation, I was able to invite someone to church recently and they agreed to come!  It seems that the people I ask always decline my invitation, but I have an actual church-date this weekend and I'm very excited.

So that's that.  #19 is crossed off my 101 in 1001 list and I'm no longer scared of situations where people ask me about my faith.  Yay!