Dilemma: When to Drop the Bible Bomb

I was e-mailing with a friend today, and we were talking about evangelism.  More specifically, we were talking about the drive-by variation, where well-meaning Christians approach total strangers with the gospel, usually in the form of a little tract or booklet.

I’ll just say it up front: I’m not a huge fan of the drive-by Bible bomb drop off.  I know people come to Christ in this way, and so I’m not going to say there’s no redeeming value in the approach (wow, I just made a pun). But most of the time, I think it puts people off.  And I’m willing to bet a lot of Christians would be annoyed if it were the Mormons or the JWs doing the drive-by on them.

Anyway, this conversation got me thinking.  At what point do you drop the Bible bomb?

Case in point: My husband and I just bought our first house and moved into a new neighborhood.  We’re literally the new kids on the block–kids, I say, because we’re probably at least 10 and in some cases 20-30 years younger than most people in our neighborhood.  Still, we believe in God and Jesus as His plan for a relationship with mankind (wow–that sounded really textbookish), and so we feel both a desire and obligation to eventually share the gospel with our neighbors.  So, the question looms: when?

I know there’s the standard response of, well, just get to know them and let them see Christ in your life. But then what? I think people break into two camps at this point.  There’s those who feel that once you’ve established a relationship, it’s time to share the gospel.  And I understand why–it’s a dying world!  If we love our neighbors and friends, we want to share Christ with them.  But then there’s others who seem to think hey, if you just “be Jesus” to the world, eventually people are going to see this “light” in you and ask you about it.  I guess I’ve just never seen a real-life example of this happening.  It certainly hasn’t to me, although I’m fully willing to admit this could be because I just haven’t been a great representation of Jesus!

I’ll admit it: if I were one of my neighbors and some young upstart who just moved into my neighborhood came over and asked “would you like to come to church with me?” I’d be freaked out by it.  After all, I don’t know anything about them, or their church for that matter.  And I have my own background and opinions already.

I might be more receptive if they took time to get to know me and build my trust, but still.  I’m trying to think, if I were them, what would make me most comfortable with a spiritual conversation?

I think part of the problem here is the fact that faith/religion is pretty much the only social taboo in our society anymore.  It’s totally socially acceptable to talk about sex, drinking, smoking weed, even politics to an extent, but once someone brings up “God,” or “Jesus,” everyone else starts to squirm.  I guess we shouldn’t  be surprised…Jesus did say this would happen!

But still.  There’s got to be some type of balance between not offending people with the gospel and never mentioning your faith out of fear.

Obviously, I don’t profess to have the answers.  I’m  just throwing this out there, wondering if anyone else has felt the same way?  I can’t really think of too many Bible passages that offer an example I can particularly relate to (although I know the one that immediately comes to mind is the passage in Acts where Paul relates the gospel to the altar of the unknown god.)

If anyone reading this is of a religion other than Christian, or of no religion, I want to pose a question:  Is it always offensive if someone tries to talk with you about faith, or can it be pleasant if done in a respectful way?

I’m interested in hearing people’s thoughts.  Thanks for reading, and I hope people will feel comfortable commenting.

The Blogworthiness of the Magic Eraser

One of the more neurotic things about me is that I love–and I mean LOVE–trying out new cleaning products. I know that’s slightly disturbing, but cleaning is therapeutic for me. If I have a bad day, I take it out on a dirty shower. There are worse things I could do…

Anyway, if you are like me and love cleaning, or aren’t like me and hate it, I have two words for you: Magic Eraser. This little brick of odorless foam can do wonderous things like you’ve never imagined. I HIGHLY recommend stocking up on these if you ever move out of an apartment. We did, and we used it on every wall mark. It gets rid of about every scuff you can imagine, even paint transfer. I even used it on candle soot. We had a candle beneath a picture in our bathroom, and when I removed the picture there was a nice line around the perimeter of where the picture had been. It must have resulted from the candle soot. Well, I used the eraser on it and effortlessly, the soot came right off!

Another thing it does well is clean grease. There was some decent grease build up (I can’t believe this happened in my own kitchen!) on the ventilation hood above our stove. The eraser cut right through it! It also works very well on bathrooms  sinks and showers. The original Magic Eraser is made by Mr. Clean, but grocery stores have made a generic form, which is a little cheaper. I would definitely stock up on a few boxes when they’re on sale. Once you try this magic little white brick, you’ll be hooked forever! (Wow…sounds remarkably as if I’m talking about cocaine.  I’m not, in case you wondered.)

Does Amazon.com Want Me to Get Fat?

Honestly, when I view Amazon.com, all the advertisements, which I know have been tailored specifically to me, have something to do with food.  It’s always either a cookbook, or cookware.  And for those of you who haven’t already picked up on this fact, I don’t particularly enjoy cooking!Well, today came the ultimate proof of Amazon’s conspiracy to make me fat.  Wanting to view workout DVDs,  I typed in “Denise Austen workout.”    And despite Denise being one of the best-known and bestselling fitness personalities in the business, what does my search return?  An advertisement for a book titled Cookies, by Martha Stewart. Not exactly what I had in mind. 

New People, I Don’t Like You

It’s Tuesday night, just before 9:00, and that usually means one thing: time for a whole hour of an all-new House.  But, tonight there is no new House.  So, I am dedicating this blog to something that I, as a House fan, feel needs to be said.  I miss my old friends Cameron, Chase, and Foreman.  Why don’t we ever see them anymore?!I’ll admit the new people were interesting at first.  Yes, I got caught up in the competition and Survivor-style eliminations. But enough is enough!  I don’t care how funny Kutner is, how “hot” American males think “Thirteen” is, or how…well…I don’t know what exactly Taub is supposed to be yet, but the point is: I DON’T LIKE THE NEW PEOPLE!  All I wanted last week was a few minutes with you, Cameron, and your old hair (WHY did they do that to your hair?  It looked beautiful before!) And I’m sorry for all the times I whined about you, Dr. Chase, and how underdeveloped your character is.  Can you ever forgive me?  And Foreman: you know you’ve always been a favorite of mine.  I think it goes without saying that your absence from my life is felt very keenly.In hopes that–by some impossible miracle–a writer of House might accidentally stumble upon this blog, I want to say something to the writers: ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR MINDS?!  You had the most-watched show on television–you had a cast that was working magically!  We bonded with them!  They were our virtual friends!  How could you do this to us–to them?!  Give us back Cameron, Foreman, and Chase!And because I’m already hearing whines about why the writers *had* to change up the cast because the show was too “formulaic,” I want to remind everyone that the formula was WORKING!  That’s why we have formulas–because they work.  I don’t know about you, but when I make mac & cheese, I always do it the same way: boil noodles, drain, add cheese sauce, butter, and milk.  I don’t decide that my mac & cheese has suddenly become “too formulaic” and swap the normal ingredients for raisins, M&M’s, and orange juice.   So, to the writers, the cast, and all the rest of you fans, let me say it one more time:  Bring back Cameron, Chase, and Foreman!  I liked my mac & cheese just the way it was, thank you.

Of Sickness and Sinus Irrigation

Yep, I irrigated sinuses today.  And yes, it was rather disgusting. But let me start at the beginning…So around Tuesday night of last week, I came down with some sort of winter sickness, some sort of sore throat turned head cold turned sinus infection.  What that really means is a whole lot of yuk has been inconveniently occupying my sinus cavity now for almost a week.  I hate being sick.   I know everyone does, but for us highly social-active folks, being sick is like a prison sentence, like being banished to a small triangular area between the bed, couch, and bathroom.  Call it the triangle of infirmity. And I really hate taking sick days from work.  Not only does it put me behind on my projects, but it makes me admit, “Yep, it’s pretty bad.  I can’t even sit at a desk.”So today I go to the doctor, which I also hate.  I always feel like they view me with suspicion, like they’re secretly thinking, “She’s not really sick…She’s just trying to get Pseudoephedrine so she can use it to make Meth!” So it turns out I have a sinus infection, but the doctor won’t give me any antibiotics.  Instead, I got some nice spiel about how germs are becoming resistant to antibiotics, “so we really can’t prescribe them for sinus infections anymore, and after all, studies have found that sinus infections don’t clear up any faster with antibiotics than without them, yada yada yada.”  And what does Medicine Woman tell me to do?  Try the neti pot.  What is the neti pot, you ask?   Observe… Here we have some poor woman demonstrating the neti pot on Oprah.  How they got her to do this on national television, I will never know.So yes, I did this today in the comfort of my own bathroom.   It’s really rather simple: in one side, out the other.  What happens is you rather unnaturally pour a solution of salt and water into one nostril.  It then fills your sinus cavity (which is the weird feeling part) and then comes out the other side.I will admit that it did make me feel better, for about 30 minutes.  For a few glorious minutes, I did not feel like I had a machete in my forehead.  The relief lasted just long enough to type out this blog entry.  Now my head is back to feeling like it might explode at any moment. So, that being the case, I’m returning now to my triangle of infirmity, until I get up the nerve to once again use the neti pot on my infected sinuses. Lovely.