boldness, part II

While sitting in Union Square tonight, I spent about 15-30 minutes listening to someone preach the Gospel in the middle of the square. He had a microphone in hand with a Bible in the other, with a small hexagon of tape around him on the ground. Some people were sitting on the steps, some listening, some not. Some people seemed annoyed, others seemed angered.

He was approached by various people, posing different questions or setting arguments against what he was preaching. A few even stood in front of him, similarly pacing back and forth, proclaiming their own beliefs in an effort to drown out his.

I've seen all kinds of street evangelism. I've seen bands playing on a corner in K-town, people with huge signs saying that we're all going to hell if we don't repent, people handing out pamphlets with steps to knowing God. Maybe it was because this was the first time I sat down to listen to one of these people trying to share the Gospel in public, but by the time I got up to leave, for the first time, I was tremendously encouraged by what he was doing.

Can you imagine what it's like? To put yourself out there on the streets of New York City, where the last thing anyone wants you to tell them is what they should believe? To know that you'll probably get yelled at? Asked questions that you might not have the answer to? To be honest, I was probably more scared for him than he was for himself. But I think he had gotten to the point where the message of the cross had settled so deep into his heart that he fully understood the desperation that we all should have in sharing the Gospel. And he put that desperation, that urgency, into action. In a very bold way.

Maybe this is the confidence/boldness/urgency that we should all have; whether or not it comes out in us preaching the Gospel on the streets of NYC is another story. But if we really believe in the Gospel, shouldn't we be desperate to see it spread?

I think I need to become more desperate to see God move in the people, city, community, around me. Because if this is life and death, than I should want everyone to have eternal life. And I do. Not only because Jesus commanded us to, but because it is a pretty amazing thing to have.

But maybe, right now, I don't want it bad enough. Or I just don't know where to start.


This was a jumbled up post. I mostly wanted to give props to random-street-evangelism-man and point out that I have a fair amount of growing to do in this area.


PS. I need to stop worrying about how my posts sound. Or look like. Or... do I?