Why should I believe anything? Maybe a better question is, is there anything worthwhile to believe? Or, is there anything that I should believe in?
We talk to people all the time who have never thought about what they believe. They will ask us a question that we have posted because many can’t think of a question on their own. I guess maybe I shouldn’t expect them to come up with a question because so many haven’t thought seriously about anything, let alone Christianity. People walk by our booth, see the sign, read the sample questions, but very few actually come and have a conversation. I often wonder, is it that they aren’t interested, are they afraid, or just incapable of holding their own in a conversation?
That may be why most of the people we talk to are teenagers. They often don’t have a specific question other than, “What are you doing here?” At least young people are still curious. When they ask, we answer, and then usually have a question for them: “What do you know about Jesus?” They may say, “I’m a Christian, I go to Catholic school,” or, “I’m getting baptized next week.” But we try to dig a little deeper. We find out that they know very little. Sure, they admit they are sinners, that they may need a Saviour, but their Saviour is who? But they don’t know anything about Jesus or the significance of His birth, death, and resurrection. They have never heard of repentance or that there is anything to repent of. Sure, they know that they aren’t perfect, but they have never considered that a holy God would have anything to say about it.
Blaise Pascal said, “People almost always arrive at their beliefs not on the basis of proof but on the basis of what they find attractive.” It seems many young people look at religion, and Christianity, that way. Christianity is attractive as long as we don’t dig too deep and stay away from things like God’s justice, God’s jealousy, and God’s wrath. We try to explain that God loves them, He wants to be known by them, and has sacrificed everything for them. We also explain that God, through Jesus, has done all the work for their salvation.
We have a question posted in our booth that says, “Is being good, good enough?” The truth is, we can’t be good enough to please a holy God. Jesus, fully God and fully human, was able to live the perfect life that we never could. When Jesus died on the cross, that perfect life was the sacrifice that paid for our sin. Jesus took the punishment for our sin! Forgiveness is available to us; do you want it?
What we believe truly does matter. Our eternity depends on it!
