Make Me Bold

This semester I'm doing a Bible study with two of my very best friends. Right now we're reading a book called So Long, Insecurity by Beth Moore. Tonight while we were discussing the chapters we read for the week, I came to a horrifying conclusion:

One of my biggest insecurities is what I believe in.

Let me back up for a minute; I know what I believe. Or, better yet, Who I believe in. That's never been the question. The problem is that I'm extremely hesitant when it comes to sharing what I believe with others.

For whatever reason, I've always had it in my head that the whole rest of the world sees Christians as complete nutcases. That for those who aren't religious (I really hate that word, but 'spiritual' is too broad), those of us who believe in Jesus as the Son of God are off our rockers. The more I thought about it, and the more Bekah, Kim, and I talked about it, I started to realize that I'm afraid that because I am a Christian, non-Christians won't take me seriously.

Now I believe that this fear stems from an even deeper one: the fear of being judged, labelled, stereotyped, and disregarded. I'm ashamed to admit that I've allowed this fear to put me in a box. I'm not very verbal about what I believe around nonbelievers for one of two reasons: 1.) I'm afraid they'll think I'm a lunatic, or 2.) I make this wild assumption that nothing I say will ever cause them to believe what I believe.

I, I, I, me, me me. Goodness gracious, there's my problem.

I won't go through the whole long process, but I will say that my girls and I had so many really good discussions about all of this. Here's what we learned:

1.) Most people thought Jesus was nuts. Didn't stop Him.
2.) The Gospel message is too important not to share it every chance I get.
3.) I have been set apart and called to spread the Word. [2 Cor. 5:20-21]
4.) In the end, when I'm standing before my Savior, it won't matter what anyone else thought of me.
5.) I need to start viewing other people not as nonbelievers, but as lost souls. Souls that will one day burn in hell if they reject Jesus. I love the people in my life far too much to let that happen. It's not up to me, but I'm gonna do everything within my power to help them see the Truth.
6.) Bekah compared our faith to someone who lives and breathes a sport, like soccer. They would intentionally invite others into the aspect of their life because it was so important to them; invite them to games, talk about it all the time, etc. That's exactly how excited I want to be about my faith.

Actually verbalizing that I'm insecure when it comes to sharing my faith was a pretty big slap in the face. But I needed it. I had never given it this much thought before, and to be completely honest, it bugs the heck out of me. Sharing my faith really has nothing to do with me at all. It's not about my story, it's about His. It's the most important story ever told, and I should be bursting at the seams to invite people into it. I'd rather have people think I'm a lunatic than stand before God on Judgment Day knowing I could have done better.

Jesus, make me bold!