one of those 'God thoughts'

Have you ever had God hit you over the head with a thought? He just did that to me recently. It isn't fun, but it is quite revealing.

I was innocently reading through a really good apologetics (defense of the Christian faith) book yesterday. This particular one happened to be an analysis of the ideas and books of some of the 'New Atheists', namely, Richard Dawkins, Sam Haris, and a few others. I was in my very Christian mindset, cheering the author on for every particularly choice arrow shot through the ideas of these men. Then, without any advance warning, God grabbed my heart. (Don't you hate it when you're so right about something and suddenly He shows up??)

It wasn't audible. I've never been one of those people who hears a big voice booming out of heaven. That would be cool... but, no. Instead, it was a nagging little voice that sounded an awful lot like an annoying mosquito, buzzing merrily away just out of reach. Some people may call it a conscience, I call it God.

It said: "okay miss smarty-pants. What would you do if given the opportunity to spend a day with, say, Richard Dawkins?" Me: "well, if given enough warning, I would spend lots of time preparing all sorts of good arguments as to why he is basically an idiot. Based on the biblical understanding of course, I don't mean that in a nasty way, I'm just getting all this from Proverbs and Romans..." It said: "do you think that perhaps those men have heard enough arguments from Christians? Do you think that perhaps they would respond to truth more if they had someone show the caring side of a Christian? I said: "Go away." It said: "Not until you think this through some more."

(SIGH)So, I thought. And wondered. I wondered if Richard Dawkins and Sam Harris have any Christian friends. I wondered if anyone who is a biblical Christian has taken the time to get to know them as people, or if they all avoid them as they would the Swine Flu. I wondered if any Christians took the time to pray for them to come to know God, or if they prayed for them to fall off of a cliff.

I wondered, did I ever think about them as people, or did I merely see them as wrong philosophies to be shot down?

I wondered how God saw my hypocrisy of claiming to care about people and then turning around and tearing down, in my mind, those I saw as worldly smart but not wise.

I've got a long way to go. For the record, I still believe they are wrong, and I want to learn all I can to be able to defend truth against their attacks. At the same time though, I am asking God, in the words of Brandon Heath, to give me His eyes. I want to see them as people, not just as the personification of their ideas.

Yep. God hit me with something just as hard as a two by four this time. I think that is His specialty- adjusting thinking little by little so that it turns more towards Him.