A week ago I was asked to take a dare; Make that a double dare. I wasn't forced to do it although I don't chicken out much. It was to tell everyone in my own words and time about Jesus Christ. The ramifications of that double dare seemed invading of who I am today. This was an inconvenient dare. I was at a high school youth conferance called Dare 2 Share, and it was huge. More than 10,000 people praying, laughing and sharing in the presence of the Holy Spirit. Technically I wasn't even a participant: I drove the van.
Yet there I was at the Pepsi Center. Even before the conferance started, I was talking to a thirteen year old kid about how cool Jushua and Caleb were in trusting God's power and protection and how the rest of the extradited Jews really turned to sin and doubted God's will in the eyes of giants living in the promised land. There was a moment or two where I was concerned if I retold the whole story right. As I stalled this youth minister sitting infront of us blurts out with his mouth full: "Yeah, you preach brother. Go 'head". I mentioned how God cherished Caleb's faith as whole-hearted. And to think that the majority of Caleb's life was spent in the desert. That to me is awe-inspiring and indicative of delighting in God's promise. -The preaching I wasn't counting on was this little buddy shared the major events of the Old Testament in hand stories with me. His church taught him that passage in gestures.
The message of that first night was to choose Christ and serve Him first. Turning and recieving the free gift of salvation was one thing. But this conferance called us to quit lollygaging, address the distractions, have a plan to repent from the problem that stands in the way of being a living sacrafice. Make allegience to Jesus before country, friend, desires and family. It was a raw call to scantification. Like John the Baptist's call for repentance. I was cried those good tears as conviction and guilt surfaced in my head.
When asked in prayer who wanted a personal relationship with Christ in view of God's only means for salvation, 500 people raised their hand (we were told later). The Spirit moved and the pastor kept insisting remember this moment, this second. Likewise, the pastor asked who wants to pledge allegience to Christ ahead of any worldy affair, to resolve in conforming to Christ in every department of life at all times. Well the van driver wanted that. I don't want to pussyfoot around with the remainder of my life as I am a slave to Christ and must render credit and praise to Him. They will know we are Christians by our love -not our hypocracy. I think God really holds those moments as accountability -not to hinge condemnation but to convict our earthly hearts and minds to let the Holy Spirit in more. That's the way I see it. The door to start evangelizing in my life just got opened a little wider. I still didn't take the double dare though.
The next day challenged the commitment I made immediately, I grew up seeking approval and admiration of others. So when I got rejected growing up; feelings of self-blame and embarrasement would be intensly depressive. Everything about me I evaluated based on other people's opnion: from asking a girl out, to my car makes me embarrased cause its ugly, old and leaky. This is where I was glad I was the driver of the van because those kids had to go door to door and collect cans for the Denver Rescue Mission, gather prayer requests and tell the people about the good news of Jesus Christ. It took guts because most the people weren't open to this. The term coined by the pastor was "were spending our afternoon at P.U. Persecution University."
If we were trick or treaters I was the parent on the sidewalk. I observed a neighborhood willing to hand out cans but so unwilling to recieve any Gospel message (we did get a few prayer requests). I saw in the youth a let-it-roll-off-of-you attitude and they kept on keeping on. I Prayed for them and enjoyed a beautiful sunset. The evangelizism door got opened wider, was I gonna walk through it? Did I have as much heart and courage the kids displayed?
This conferance coinsided with my Faith birthday and on that day as a reminder of the victory Christ has on my faith I adopted a kid with Compassion International "Just for the price of your daily cup of coffee." Thats a huge commitment but God has blessed me with a promotion at work and I don't drink anymore so we're talking surplus down the pipes to little Tino Tiwang of Indonesia. I got his pic right by my computer he's sporting a Mickey Mouse shirt with his hands on his hips like he's the boss. Tino's 8 and lives with his grandparents. I can't wait to start correspondance.
As the conferance ended my eye was caught by this super smooth, "G"ed out hat. It was a black Dare 2 Share hat that had "D2S" on the front in some sort of gangsta caligraphy (I don't know if that's possible). I look for hats all the time as I work undercover security in retail. So the thought came to me that this hat would be a tool of evangelizm. So I got it and walked through that door to evangelize.
I wore it at work and three people asked about the hat (one being my boss) and I directly asked them "What you know about Jesus?" I followed by telling them about His free gift, my addictive sins and the Holy Spirit that is repairing my life daily. The double dare (from the conferance) did mention in my time and in my way. So yeah I took the double dare and I've been thinking more about who in my life could be next. I can't wait to catch someone shoplifting and have them ask me about the hat. What grace is harvesting in me is from the light of God: I don't know where the seeds of the Holy Spirit go. All I know is that at some point I got one, it landed in me and I gave my faith to Jesus to watch Him grow up in me.
